[title]
Signs of climate change are all around us. From the alarming early spring flowers to the stifling blanket of wildfire smoke this summer to ferocious flooding last week, it's impossible to ignore the staggering challenges our world faces.
Facing those climate realities can feel terrifyingly and frustratingly overwhelming. But NYC's Climate Museum is here to help. It's launched a new free pop-up called "The End of Fossil Fuel," which is now open in Soho with a bevy of eye-opening activities for all ages.
RECOMMENDED: The best museum exhibitions in NYC right now
"Most people in the U.S. are very concerned about the climate crisis but feel overwhelmed or intimidated or complicit, or, for a whole bunch of reasons, feel silenced, and like they can't do anything to address this thing that's weighing on them," Miranda Massie, director of The Climate Museum. "The Climate Museum addresses that by giving people a way to connect with each other, to learn, and to move forward with a sense of determination and resolve and optimism that we can do this."
This exhibition in particular focuses on the fossil fuel industry and climate justice in a show that "attempts to pull no punches when it comes to the industry," Massie says.
Some of the content explores tactics the fossil fuel industry has used, such as racially defined "sacrifice zones." This means companies operate in areas where they've decided that people have less political traction to object, Massie explains.
Inside the gallery, a collection of maps will put climate change issues into perspective, alongside text panels about the history of the fossil fuel industry, which Massie describes as "the ultimate expression of colonialism." The exhibits trace the origins of the climate and inequality crises and how we got to where we are today. Other activations include a sticker wall where visitors commit to specific climate actions and a kids' corner with books and drawing materials.
A 45-foot climate justice mural by R. Gregory Christie grounds the entire show, offering a peek at a reality in which humans transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to a regenerative economy with climate justice.
The show also highlights reasons for optimism, such as communities banding together to keep their towns free of petrochemical production and legislative progress.
We can move together toward a future that is just, where we have stopped runaway climate change, and where we restabilize the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and inhabit a climate safe world.
"We absolutely can do this together. We can move together toward a future that is just, where we have stopped runaway climate change, and where we restabilize the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and inhabit a climate safe world," Massie says.
To create the show, The Climate Museum worked with the design team at Eight and a Half, NY. As accessibility is deeply important to the museum leaders, Spanish and English will be spoken on-site at all times.
This isn't The Climate Museum's first pop-up. It hosted another exhibition last year and has shown work at Governors Island and in Washington Square Park.
"We want to invite everybody who wants to be part of a clean and just future to come in, learn about all the ways in which the fossil fuel industry has been exploiting us, and in particular, exploiting Black, Indigenous, Brown and low-income white communities and join the fight for a brighter future," Massie says. "There's plenty to make you mad. There's plenty to inspire you. And there's an opportunity to take action in community with others."
There's plenty to make you mad. There's plenty to inspire you. And there's an opportunity to take action in community with others.
Find The Climate Museum's pop-up, "The End of Fossil Fuel," at 105 Wooster Street in Soho. It opened on October 7 and runs through April 30. The museum is free to visit and open to all. It's open Wednesdays-Sundays from 1-6pm.