Monday, 23 September 2024

Looks Like The NHM Is Fixing To Go Broke

The Natural History Museum in London has announced a major programme of transformation it says will mark “a step-change from being a catalogue of natural history to a catalyst for change...”

Change for what?  

...in response to the climate emergency.

*sighs* I should have know they wouldn't stop with exiling Dippy. They seem determined to ruin my favourite museum

The scheme to renovate the museum’s celebrated Victorian building and develop a new research and storage facility will build on its aim to turn visitors into “advocates for the planet”, it said on Thursday. Four existing galleries will be overhauled, including its enormously popular dinosaur gallery, while the museum plans to reopen two long-closed exhibition spaces, one of which, the Old General Herbarium, has not been accessible to the public since 1948. One of them will house a new permanent exhibition that the museum’s director, Doug Gurr, said would include the most explicit climate messaging it had ever offered. The exhibition, Fixing Our Broken Planet, will have the express aim of “nudging” visitors to change their behaviour, he said.

This 'nudging' has no place in a museum. 

“Of course, we still want people to have a brilliant, fun family day out. But if you can come out of that being a little bit more interested in nature and a little bit more aware of some of the challenges, you’re a bit more likely to want to do something about it.”

Nope, not me! I know propaganda when I see it, even when it doesn't have a little explanatory label in the case... 

5 comments:

Doonhamer said...

Our Planet? (unless we, evil colonists that we are, are claiming one of all of the other 8 or 9, depending on how "sizeist" we are) ,Earth, is broken???
Well, yes, the dinosaurs would certainly agree if any had survived their dinosaur fart induced climate change.
Homos Erectus (sounds interesting ) and Neanderthals also failed to follow the accepted science. Although thanks to some inter species hanky panky we all have a tiny bit of Neanderthal in us.
You just know it will not be a simple notice to nudge nudge us. It will be a fully interactive audio video , expensive of course, thing with the gullible sucker getting brownie points for guessing the approved answers.

DiscoveredJoys said...

I wonder if they will have dioramas of people smoking, drinking alcohol, and using unacceptable speech? You know, historical stuff.

Stonyground said...

Climate Emergency! We used to laugh about episodes of apocalyptic hysteria at the turn of the first millennium or the year 1666, the Millerites, those obsessed with the Mayan calendar and that stupid Christian radio station that thought they had worked out the date for the final day of judgement. People are no longer so easily duped so what is the latter day doomsday prophet to do? The answer of course is science, not actual science of course, just claiming that your end of the world shit is based on science. Just the way the doomsayers of the past would accuse their detractors of denying God, the modern doomsayer accuses sceptics of being science deniers. And it works. Even scientifically literate people who really ought to know better are on the climate doom bandwagon, what hope is there for the undereducated, such as those running the Natural History Museum? How long will this latest apocalypse have to continue to not happen before this infinite supply of fools catch on?

The Jannie said...

Will we have to have our jabs up to date before we're allowed into their fantasyfest?

JuliaM said...

"...unless we, evil colonists that we are, are claiming one of all of the other 8 or 9, depending on how "sizeist" we are"

I wonder how they account for Mars's ice age? 🤔

"I wonder if they will have dioramas of people smoking, drinking alcohol, and using unacceptable speech? You know, historical stuff."

Pretty current in my house (except for the smoking)!

"We used to laugh about episodes of apocalyptic hysteria at the turn of the first millennium or the year 1666, the Millerites, those obsessed with the Mayan calendar and that stupid Christian radio station that thought they had worked out the date for the final day of judgement. "

Little did we know they would once seem sane by comparison...

"Will we have to have our jabs up to date before we're allowed into their fantasyfest?"

Ooof! Don't give them ideas!