The Natural History Museum in London is to open a new, free permanent gallery, Fixing Our Broken Planet, on 3 April.
Fixing Our Broken Planet is the Natural History Museum’s first new permanent gallery in a decade. As the name suggests, it will explore some of the biggest challenges facing our planet.
The new gallery will be joined by the return of Fixing Our Broken Planet: Generation Hope, the museum’s free youth climate programme, which is taking place from 29 April until 3 May.
Museum director Doug Gurr said: “Our scientists have been working to find solutions for and from nature. Fixing Our Broken Planet places this research at the heart of the museum, allowing us to offer visitors positive ways in which they can act for the planet.
“By combining the inspiring science and advocacy found in the gallery with the voices of Generation Hope changemakers, we’re showing that we all have the power to make change.”
Visitors will be given practical, evidence-based options to tackle the planetary emergency. They will see more than 250 specimens, including a Sumatran rhinoceros, parasitic worms and whale earwax.
Research on display, for example, shows how fungi is used to fertilise crops, how bacteria can be utilised to extract copper from mine waste, and how bison are contributing to engineering forests in the UK to store more carbon.
Natural History Museum inspiring climate action
Arts minister Chris Bryant said: “To create effective lasting change for the planet we must inspire all generations. This new free permanent gallery, part funded by [the Department for Culture, Media and Sport], will showcase research from the brilliant scientists at the Natural History Museum, helping to educate, challenge and entertain the public on the natural world while demonstrating how we can all make a difference.”
The Fixing Our Broken Planet gallery is in the original 1881 Waterhouse building and had to be fully restored. It is part of the museum’s £550 million transformation ahead of its 150th anniversary in 2031.
Images courtesy of the Natural History Museum
