Climate change—it’s a problem that is so weaved into all the facets of our lives that it can be overwhelming to try to understand it on our own. Luckily, more museums are making their climate exhibitions available for free online so that we can learn more about it from the comfort of our own homes, regardless of lockdowns or bad weather.
This shift to virtual exhibitions is due to the pandemic, which has made it more difficult for people to access museums. At the same time, pandemic restrictions have offered new opportunities for these establishments to reach a wider audience online, educating and inspiring even more people than before. Here are five virtual global climate change exhibits you should check out now.
The American Museum of Natural History’s interactive video tour and data wall, Hall of Planet Earth, New York
Join museum guide Michael Hamberg on a room-by-room video tour of the Hall of Planet Earth exhibition. This is a great introduction to climate change because it’s suitable for all ages and gives viewers the big picture by covering a range of topics like the earth’s formation and why it’s habitable to how the natural balance is being impacted by greenhouse gases. As an added bonus, during exhibition hours you can ask questions and get real-time responses from the museum team through the museum’s live chat function.
The Australian Museum’s Spark—Australian Innovations Tackling Climate Change Virtual Tour, Sydney, Australia
This tour highlights inventions and innovative solutions to the climate crisis, such as tritium fast-charging batteries, hydrogen-powered barbecues, seaweed farms, and solar gardens.
Visitors are welcome to participate in their climate solutions competition by sending in their own ideas for a chance to win a prize. The Australian Museum’s permanent climate change exhibition and others are also available online.
The Climate House (Klimahaus) 8° Ost, Bremerhaven, Germany
The Climate House offers viewers the “experiences” of different countries’ varying climates, all along the longitude 8th meridian east. These countries include Switzerland, Sardinia, Tunisia, Cameroon, and an Antarctic base camp. It then takes viewers on a journey back up the matching line of longitude, the 172nd meridian west, to Samoa and Alaska, illustrating how the impacts of climate change are already being felt, before heading back to Bremerhaven.
Viewers are provided with information, photos, and videos for each country so they can learn about the people who live there and how their worlds are changing. If you want to see how humans around the world are impacted by climate change and see how your life may be impacted in the future, then this is a virtual exhibit you won’t want to miss.
The Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change, Hong Kong, China
The Museum of Climate Change, which is part of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has generously made all its exhibitions free and accessible through virtual tours. Among these tours is Climate Change: Past, Present, Future, Living Greener, the Beyond 60° Antarctic Exhibition, and the Eating Greener exhibition. The museum features an online platform that helps you monitor your own green targets and actions, as well as a platform to share green information and ideas.
The Climate Change Museum, Governors Island, New York
This museum is the first in the United States to dedicate itself to the climate crisis. It features art, culture, campaigning, and information about climate change, issues, and solutions that all try to generate discussion and awareness about how we can take action.
Miranda Massie founded the museum after being impacted by Hurricane Sandy in 2014. It is her belief that the climate emergency is the greatest source of racial and social injustice that exists, and the greatest equality crisis in human history.
While this interactive museum is made for in-person visits, there are exhibitions like illustrator Mona Chalabi’s “Beyond Lies” that provide guests with a step-by-step guide for taking climate action. The museum also offers online activities for students, including sending climate art to Congress.
