News

The Science Museum found itself at the centre of growing controversy as over 150 people held a mass protest demanding it joins the rest of the culture sector in ending its controversial sponsorship deals with major fossil fuel companies. A huge 12-metre banner spanning the full height of the museum was unfurled inside its iconic Energy Hall while protesters flowed through the museum chanting ‘Adani out!’. It comes as the museum opens a new climate gallery sponsored by the controversial coal mining and arms-producing conglomerate Adani, which will join fossil fuel firm BP and Norwegian oil company Equinor as sponsors of the museum. 

Fossil Free Science Museum staged a protest as guests and VIP, including museum trustee Baroness Nicky Morgan, arrived to the opening of the new ‘Energy Revolution’ gallery sponsored by coal baron Adani. The museum had tried to keep the opening date underwrap to dodge controversy and avoid embarrassment. 

Earlier in the week, spoof adverts for the new ‘Energy Revolution’ gallery appeared on London’s tube network, posted by a parody account of the Science Museum’s Director Ian Blatchford. 

1 Feb 2024 - Greta joins Scientists for XR, Health for XR and Extinction Rebellion to challenge the museum’s Science Director Roger Highfield over the museum’s partnership with coal giant Adani.

The protest was reported in more than 10 news outlets, including a mention of Channel 4 news reporting on Greta’s trial.

Inside the Science Museum’s Wellcome medicine gallery, health professionals unfurled a banner beside the huge ‘tattooed man’ and gave a series of talks highlighting the many links between fossil fuels, the climate crisis and their devastating impacts on health. More than 100 of them wrote to the trustees highlighting why they believe that the Science Museum should cut its ties with climate wrecking fossil fuel companies.

During the Great Exhibition Road Festival that attracts large crowds for a spectacular display of art and science, Extinction Rebellion smuggle a huge banner into The Museum’s Energy Hall to shine a light on the Science Museum’s shameful interactions with the fossil fuel industry. Scientists for XR, wearing their white lab coats, were showered with black paper confetti, representing the damage caused by The Museum’s coal, oil and gas sponsors. Different campaign groups also set up a guerilla stand in the heart of The Great Exhibition Road Festival, engaging the public about The Museum’s sponsors.

In a letter to the Science Museum Trustees, we challenged the museum management’s claim that Adani Green Energy is independent from the other Adani businesses and that no partnership was ever proposed for a corporate sponsorship specifically with the Adani Group.

As the answer received from Dame Mary Archer, chair of the trustees, did not address any of our concerns, we tried again with a new letter addressed to all trustees. We are none the wiser after the second response from Dame Mary

• We sent a copy of the newly published hard back photo-book 'Science Museum Group: an unravelling tragedy’ to all Science Museum’s trustees and advisors. 
  This book is based on the Museum’s own disturbing 12-page due diligence report into the Adani Group that the trustees did not see. It brings to life a catalogue of criminal investigations, corruption litigation, environmental issues, cronyism and human rights abuses.
  Read more and see the book here
   
• Our coalition made its way inside the Science Museum to hold an unsanctioned book launch. Our speakers talked about the impact of Adani on local communities in South Asia and how inviting Adani to sponsor the Energy Revolution Gallery is a huge step backwards for the credibility of the cultural sector.
  Read more in the Museums Association Newsletter  
   
• After the revelations that Adani Green Shares were used as collateral for coal expansion, Norway’s largest pension company dropped their share in Adani. Renowed scientists called the sponsorship deal “reprehensible” and warn the Science Museum that its global reputation is at risk.
  Read more in The Art Newspaper

Over 1000 tickets booked for the Science Museum's "India Lates” event went unused, as protesters called for the cancellation of the Museum’s sponsorship deal with Indian coal-producing conglomerate Adani. South Asia Solidarity Group questioned Museum Director Ian Blatchford about the Adani deal and left a 'Coal Out of Our Museum' message at the heart of the event.

Hundreds of teachers pledge to boycott the Science Museum gallery sponsored by Adani. Over 400 teachers signed an open letter, saying "If your proposed Energy Revolution gallery (due to open in 2023) is sponsored by Adani, then we will not be bringing our students to it – or any other exhibition sponsored by a fossil fuel company.

Two protests in one day at the Science Museum demanded that it drop Adani as a sponsor.

The majority of the UK public thinks that the Science Museum should not accept fossil fuel sponsorship.

Science Museum cancels event as speakers withdraw over fossil fuel sponsorship. Professor Celia Morgan and Dr Rosalind Watts pulled out of Lates at the Science Museum to protest against the management decision to continue accepting sponsorship from fossil fuel companies.

Brazilian digital artist João Queiroz pulls out of the Science Museum’s upcoming exhibition, Voyage to the Edge of Imagination, in protest against its deal with Adani, in solidarity with Indigenous communities.

• Indigenous Voices are brought directly to the Science Museum via films played on an Ad Van, along with a solidarity protest organised by a coalition of 11 different groups (Coal Action Network; Culture Unstained; Fossil Free London; London Mining Network; Market Forces; South Asia Solidarity Group; Tipping Point UK; UK Student Climate Network London; Scientists for XR; Survival International; XR Hammersmith and Fulham)
   
• Over 5000 letters are sent asking the Science Museum to listen to Indigenous people and drop Adani.

• Former UK Chief Scientist Sir David King criticises the Science Museum for fossil fuel sponsorship in the Guardian.
• A large group of leading scientists and former contributors to the Science Museum call the museum’s response to them ‘disappointing and patronising’ and call on it to engage with its critics in a ‘genuine and meaningful way’.
• Representatives of Indigenous communities impacted by Adani’s coal operations in India, Indonesia and Australia call on the Science Museum to listen to their concerns and drop its sponsorship deal, reports the Guardian.

• Over seventy Extinction Rebellion protestors stage a live art protest at the Lates event inside the Science Museum.
• Anna Phoebe and Space Rocks cancel their event at the Science Museum because of the Museum’s relationship with fossil fuel companies. Read more here.
• Channel 4 News reveal that the Science Museum’s contract with Adani Green Energy also includes a “gagging clause”, based on an in-depth investigation by Culture Unstained which revealed that the museum also nearly signed a sponsorship deal with 12 of the world’s biggest oil firms. Read more here.
• 60 leading scientists and museum contributors commit ‘not to work with’ the Science Museum Group until it announces a moratorium on accepting fossil fuel funding, reports the Guardian.
• Drs Steve and Dee Allen refuse to allow their work to be included in the Science Museum’s collection because of the institution’s links to Shell, the Guardian reports

• Two young people are barred from entering the museum less than a day after the Chair of Trustees promised to 'engage...with those who disagree with our position'
• Prof Christopher Jackson declines an invitation to be a museum trustee over environmental concerns.
• Former Trustee, Dr Sarah Dry reveals that she had opposed the museum’s decision to accept sponsorship from Adani.
• Mathematician and presenter Dr Hannah Fry and Director of the Institute for Research in Schools Dr Jo Foster resign from the museum’s Board of Trustees over its stance on fossil fuel sponsorship. Hannah explains her reasons in a Times comment piece.

• The Wangan and Jagalingou cultural custodians, traditional owners of the land where Adani is building a giant coal mine in Australia, speak out against the Adani sponsorship and museum Director Ian Blatchford’s dismissal of their concerns on BBC Radio 4
• BBC Front Row: Director Ian Blatchford is challenged over the sponsorship deal with Adani.
• UK Student Climate Network London organise a vigil and overnight occupation of the Science Museum to remember the victims of fossil fuel companies.
• On the day the Science Museum welcomes top investors in innovation for a Global Investment Summit, the museum and Adani announce their new sponsorship deal, provoking widespread negative media coverage - see the FT, Guardian, Independent and Sky for example. Extinction Rebellion’s protest highlights that the Science Museum is ‘doubling down’ on its ‘reckless’ choices of funder
• Former Science Museum director, Prof Chris Rapley CBE resigns from the Science Museum’s Advisory Board over the issue of fossil fuel sponsorship.

Young climate campaigners from UK Student Climate Network London request formally that their placards the Science Museum has on display be removed - and they are.

The museum is the target of Extinction Rebellion protests over the Shell sponsorship, with Scientists for XR leading a 70-strong overnight occupation of the museum, reports the Telegraph.

• Greta Thunberg criticises Science Museum in a tweet over Shell ‘gagging clause’
• Channel 4 news reports that the museum signed a ‘gagging clause’ with Shell.