Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg stop the Science Museum in its tracks over its fossil fuel sponsors

On Thursday 1 February protesters from Extinction Rebellion, including medical doctors and scientists, targeted a panel debate organised by the Science Museum on scientific predictions for 2024. They were joined by climate activist Greta Thunberg who had just left the first day of her trial at Westminster Magistrates court:

Science Museum: sponsored by climate-wreckers

For the duration of the sold out event a member of Health for XR stood next to the panellists in silence, holding a banner saying:

2024 – MORE DROUGHTS, FLOODS AND DEATHS FUELLED BY SCIENCE MUSEUM OIL AND COAL SPONSORS

The event became chaotic when the science director Roger Highfield started talking about climate change and he was challenged from the floor by a restive audience over his hypocritical support of the museum’s coal sponsor, Adani.

While the organisers tried to bring the event to an end, not allowing questions, Thunberg was forced to shout from the audience to challenge the museum’s partnership with coal giant Adani for their role in the escalating climate crisis. She said:

The science is clear. During an escalating climate crisis, is it responsible for a public body like the Science Museum to invite Adani to sponsor its Energy Revolution gallery? Adani has just invested 16 Billion Australian dollars in a new coal mine and, as your own due diligence revealed, is accused of environmental crimes, human rights abuses and corruption.

Fossil fuel corporates bringing “death and extinction to the world”

At the start of the event, Dr Katherine Fallon, a retired GP from Cheshire announced that the activists did not intend to stop the debate but intended to remind the audience and the panel of experts that the Museum’s sponsors BP, Equinor, and Adani were still investing in new oil, gas and coal projects, despite advice and warnings from climate scientists, the International Energy Agency, and the United Nations that this is incompatible with keeping global average temperature rise within the Paris Agreement target of 1.5°c.

Fallon said:

We love the Science Museum but we are here to protest against the museum accepting sponsorship from companies that are planning to continue new expansion of fossil fuels. You do not have to be a rocket scientist or a doctor to know that in 2024, fossil fuel induced climate change will bring more droughts, floods and deaths.

Despite advice from climate scientists, the Science Museum sponsors, Adani, BP and Equinor carry on drilling for new coal, oil and gas, bringing misery, death and extinction to the world.

Dr Kush Naker, infectious disease specialist from London who took part in the action said:

As a doctor it is my responsibility to warn people when their health is being threatened. The sponsors of the science museum are the greatest threat to the health of my patients. They are polluting the air we need to breathe, driving famines, droughts, and the spread of deadly infectious diseases. Accepting money from these companies is totally unacceptable, and that is why I am part of this protest.

Academics withdrawing consent

A letter was sent to all the Science Museum panellists in advance, asking them to reconsider their participation. As a consequence, award-winning science presenter and associate lecturer in theoretical astrophysics at the University of York, Dr Emma Osborne, withdrew from the event “Time: all an illusion” taking place the same evening.

By doing so, she joins a group of scientists and artists who have previously pulled out of events organised by the Science Museum, to protest against the management decision to continue accepting sponsorship from fossil fuel companies.

This protest comes at a time when the UK is starting to feel the consequences of climate change, with more frequent and more severe flooding affecting thousands of homes, infrastructure, farmland, and wildlife; something that other less-fortunate countries have had to endure for years.

As the impact of climate change intensifies, an increasing number of pressure groups are asking the Science Museum to cut ties with fossil fuel companies.

Science Museum: ‘the public is starting to join the dots’

Dr Tristram Wyatt, senior research fellow at the University of Oxford and member of Scientists for XR who also took part in the event, added:

As we have seen this evening, the public is starting to join the dots. It’s not acceptable for the Science Museum to provide a space for fossil fuel companies to hypocritically claim to be clean energy producers, when the billions they still spend on fossil fuel extraction dwarf their investments in renewables.

Featured image and additional images via Extinction Rebellion