Nick Merriman, English Heritage chief executive, and Sarah Sutton, CEO at Environment and Culture Partners, have shared their thoughts on climate inaction in the museum sector.
Merriman’s new book Museums and the Climate Crisis, for which Sutton contributed a chapter, provided the basis for a session at greenloop 2024 – blooloop’s conference focusing on sustainability in visitor attractions.
Long-term view
On his motivation for writing the book, Merriman said that there is “something distinctive that museums and galleries can bring to the global phenomenon of climate breakdown and biodiversity crisis”.
There is an opportunity for museums to have a significant impact, because they are among “a very small group of institutions that are mandated to take a long-term view beyond short-term cycles of politics and economics, which often means that things don’t get done”.
“Although the climate crisis is urgent, it’s also playing out over quite a long timescale where we’re trying to meet net zero over periods of decades,” Merriman added.
Culture v. science
One reason the museum sector has been slow is down to a historic schism between culture and science, Merriman said. Museums often have separate galleries for culture and nature, and this separation “has really impacted negatively on museums’ ability to respond swiftly to the climate and biodiversity crisis”.
“I think that separation of nature and culture has led to a blind spot about how humans have impacted the planet, which we’re only just beginning to catch up with,” Merriman explained.
Absence of leadership in US
On climate inaction in the US, Sutton continued: “I think the reason museums suffer from bold action is that we don’t have a national organization saying that this is a priority. The national museum association does not say this is our priority and our responsibility.
“And in the absence of that, what we get is patchy groups who are building their own coalitions.”
This lack of a national organization prioritising climate action is partly political. “We’re worried about the appearance of climate funding discouraging part of our support network,” Sutton said.
“I believe that is much more an illusion than a reality. But as creatures of habit, that perception has remained.”
Perfectionism
Another reason some museums are slow to take climate action, Merriman said, is because “they think if we are going to engage people in climate change, then we need to sort ourselves out and we haven’t got any funding to sort ourselves out, so we’ll do nothing”.
“My exhortation always is do something, for god’s sake. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Nobody is perfect. It’s better to start one step on the journey than not start the journey at all.”
greenloop 2024 sessions are on demand for 30 days for ticket holders. Anyone else can contact events@blooloop.com.
