Rain of shame at the Science Museum during The Great Exhibition Road Festival 2023
Saturday June 17, 2023
Photo credit Andrea Domeniconi
Press Release -Scientists for Extinction Rebellion
Email: scientistsforxr@protonmail.com
Scientists for XR contact: +44 7967 651015
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https://show.pics.io/xr-global-media-breaking-news/search?tagId=648ed64e641c7e000ed0c527
Every year, The Great Exhibition Road Festival in June [1] attracts large crowds for a spectacular display of art and innovation. This weekend, Extinction Rebellion led by Scientists for XR [2] used this opportunity to shine a light on the Science Museum’s shameful interactions with the fossil fuel industry [3].
“We are here to join in peacefully with the spirit of the festival, answering questions from the public and providing entertaining games for the children. Now that the British Museum has dropped BP as a sponsor, the Science Museum remains the only major national museum still receiving sponsorship from multiple fossil fuel companies, including a coal producer. The Science Museum well understands the seriousness of the climate crisis, so why are they providing a respectable cover for major polluters who persist in driving us towards an inhabitable world?” said geography teacher Rafaela Fitzhugh.
Despite watchful security staff, Extinction Rebellion managed to smuggle a huge banner into The Museum’s Energy Hall. Wearing their white lab coats, they were showered with black paper confetti, representing the damage caused by The Museum’s coal, oil and gas sponsors.
Joined by other campaigning groups, Extinction Rebellion also set up a guerilla stand in the heart of The Great Exhibition Road Festival, engaging the public about The Museum’s sponsors.
“Being sponsored by companies like BP that are backtracking on their promises to invest in renewables or like Equinor that are planning the exploitation of the biggest undeveloped oil field in the UK, is bad enough for a place of knowledge and education like the Science Museum. But the management of the Science Museum is taking the deception to a new level by inviting Adani, a coal company, as a new sponsor.” said Dr Tristram Wyatt, zoologist from Oxford University.
This weekend of actions comes just one day after a coalition of campaigners put the Science Museum Trustees on notice. The coalition brings together numerous groups in a common cause, including, Fossil Free London, Culture Unstained, South Asia Solidarity Group, UK Student Climate Network London, and Scientists for XR. In a letter [4] posted on the coalition website and sent to every trustee, the campaigners asked for an explanation of the Science Museum’s statements regarding their latest sponsor Adani.
“The Science Museum is refusing to address the fact they had to backtrack from a direct relationship with the Adani group, because of the discovery in their own due diligence report highlighting a catalogue of accusations such as criminal investigations, corruption litigation, environmental issues, and human rights abuses. Since the management of the Science Museum found the stratagem to engineer instead a relationship with Adani Green Energy, it is now clear that, in the midst of a huge financial scandal related to Adani, this subsidiary has also disgraced itself by being used as collateral to finance coal expansion. But the museum refuses to confront that reality.” says Dr Caroline Vincent, retired consultant for the pharmaceutical industry.
Notes to editors
[1] The Great Exhibition Road Festival
https://www.greatexhibitionroadfestival.co.uk/
[2] Scientists for Extinction Rebellion
https://www.scientistsforxr.earth/
[3] The Science Museum and fossil fuel sponsorship
https://www.fossilfreesciencemuseum.com/
[4] Letter to the Science Museum Trustees:
https://www.fossilfreesciencemuseum.com/lettertosm150623