Bill and I recently visited the "Evolving Planet" exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago. It was a huge exhibit, taking up much of the second floor, and most of the interpretation (in my never-actually-professional opinion) was quiet good. The exhibit walked the visitor through the evolution of life on earth. Rooms were set at different points of time with tons of wicked cool fossils and some "sets" with models of trees and enormous bugs of past eras.
Six mass extinctions marked signification transitions of types of life on earth. While the meat of the info could lead you to believe mass extinctions were good (mammals thrived when dinos died...) the visuals (like dramatic red lighting) made those parts of the exhibit eerie. (Ahh! Meteors are falling!!!)
On each interpretive sign there was a time line since...well the beginning of time on earth, with each era in a different color and mass extinctions in red. So, we knew there would be an environmental message at the end regarding the sixth, and current mass extinction. I had high hopes for a solid, actionable message.
Finally, the self-promoting feel-good message:
That was pretty much it. Three signs in a little nook. But then, the best part. When visitors walk just around the corner, just outside of the exhibit saying that transportation, garbage and (reasonable people could infer) conspicuous consumption are killing species in the same vein that led to the extinction of dinosaurs, giant sloths and some pretty funky looking fish, you find this:
I literally took this photo standing next to the sign about how awful humans are. Any guesses as to the contents of the store? Recycled tote bags for groceries? Wind turbines? Perhaps "adopt an endangered species" packets? "More Fun, Less Stuff" bumper stickers?
Nope.
Plastic dinosaurs made in China. Puzzles made in China. Dinosaur robots, presumably made in China. Tons of short-life, basically disposable stuff made in a polluted country and shipped across a very large ocean.
Mind-boggling.
I tried to find a museum interpretor to help me understand this seemingly hypocritical disconnect (as well as a scientific question about mass extinctions), but couldn't. Apparently these sort of staff leave for the day around 3, though the museum is open until 6. I searched for over a solid half hour and asked multiple security and information employees to help me find someone to talk to and they helpfully said I was asking too late in the day.
So I am left to guessing about the museum's intent. Here are the two thoughts I come up with:
1) Money from museum sales supports conservation programs, like those on the last sign, which purchase and protect land.
My problem with that is this: if humans are causing the mass extinction, purchasing land seems to address a symptom and not the actual problem of unsustainable long-distance consumption. It would seem a futile effort in the long run, unless human consumptive behavior is significantly altered.
2) The museum needs the money from gift shop sales to cover operating costs which make exhibits like "Evolving Planet" - and its message about environmental destruction - possible.
Having worked at a large conservation non-profit, I totally get the fundraising thing. However, if a goal of the exhibit is to get visitors to think about, and ultimately act to change their unsustainable habits and they still want to buy destructive, polluting crap less than 20 seconds after leaving the part of the exhibit that tells them not to, I'd say your interpretation is not very effective and no one is getting your message.
So, here is my question to the Field Museum that I am left to posting here because no one was available at the actual museum. Why not raise money in a way that supports, rather than undermines, your mission? Have a huge ole gift shop with things that will make people feel good about not buying crap.
Start with a big, self-righteous sign about why you don't sell plastic crap made in China. Sell flower seeds for window boxes, or small trees. Treats for birds made by the local YMCA afterschool program? Organic dog biscuits with local ingredients made by local old people? I'd even be ok with books about sustainable living. Show visitors how to actually change their consumption and have fun doing it.
Otherwise, I am left thinking the museum is full of crap and the sixth mass extinction has nothing to do with me.
I meant to add...feel free to disagree with me. I'm feeling smug about the whole thing, so it is likely I am missing something subtle and important.
ReplyDeleteThat was a great post! It seems that we (the royal we) switch topics very quickly in our heads. It was interesting to see you hear a message and then a few minutes later be persuaded with an opposite message. Most people would not recognize that. It think it is important to bring this to the museums attention. They might be surprised as well. Maybe they never thought of it as well. It was great of you to speak of the possible comebacks and the "holes" in the argument. Great post. Keep up the observations.
ReplyDeleteI blame too much sesame street for my short attention span. I assume thats what they are counting on.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously I must assume that the reason for this is a colossal oversight, as in these folks over here are responsible for putting together a display on X, and you folks here we're gonna lease this gift shop space to and we'll take 15% thanks very much, and me the museum director I'm gonna go to this conference in Hawaii on how to make sure your organziation's message is cohesive. I think it was Andrew Carnegie who said that the worst thing people can do is donate large sums of money to unworthy institutions.
Call me a cynic.
Very good points. Reminded me that when I was at WWF the marketing department was "giving away" ponchos (for a donation) made from a chemical that the toxics people were campaigning against. I blamed a lack of leadership commitment. As long as people donated and the organization stayed out of the papers for doing bad things, no one cared about doing better.
ReplyDeleteI am so over groups that go "blah blah blah" and don't pay any attention to their own actions. Be the change you want to see, people!
Though I fail to see how this is Big Bird's fault... Classic Sesame Street is above reproach. This new fangled "cookies are a sometimes food," however, is something else entirely.
JoAnna - Thank you for this post. In my opinion, you should write to the museum and call them on this. It might be the case that Chris pointed out, not everyone is on the same page (or mission) but it would be to there benefit to try and correct this. Or at least provide you with some explanation. However, to the bigger issue, I think it is because a majority of the public are not as discerning as you are. If they were, companies and organizations would be moving away from saying one thing and practicing another. But I don't see that to a large degree. I regularly scratch my head that companies sell organic products packaged in outrageous containers or with excessive amounts of disposable, single use materials. Maybe it is my fault for interpreting their ideals - that they are trying to do what is right for the planet. It is like they are almost there but fall flat just as they are about to achieve the end game. Just like the museum - do this, don't do that, you are creating a problem, but please buy some of our crap which we just told you 10 feet ago was destroying your kid's future. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteTo me, it comes down to a practice what you preach issue. Nothing bugs me more than people telling me how to behave but not doing it themselves. I know we all can do more - myself included - and should strive to everyday. When we are presented with opportunities to do something different for the betterment of the planet, we should. Yes, there are tons of scientific tidbits we can argue about until we are blue in the face - i.e. what is the root cause of climate change - but at the end of the day, if we can do something that would make it better even if the science isn't entirely conclusive, shouldn't you? After all, doesn't scientific evidence rule out, not prove, a hypothesis. Ok, I am digressing way too far and getting off my soapbox now.
Bottom line - every little bit helps, even if it is just questioning those who are calling the kettle black...
I find it harder than it sounds to practice what I preach. It requires constant critical attention and analysis to almost every decision you make, which I find the largest barrier to "just getting it done". Also, I preach a lot - that works against me.
ReplyDeleteI very much like to think about ways to avoid consumerism, but I can not find ANY good blogs out there to follow this topic. Or information on the web in general. We should start our own blog specifically to record ways of saving money, effective recycling, and generally avoiding consuming (without becoming communists).
I find that perhaps a majority of my consumerism is related to food. That's part of our motivation for starting the "Good Food. Eat Here." blog...
ReplyDeleteIn the context of our current economic collapse, it bothers me how widespread this hypocrisy is, but when the shit isn't hitting the fan, I guess maybe I didn't care so much. I feel slightly dirty, and lied to. Every professor I ever had at ESF preached conservation and environmentalism. How many lectures did I hear about sustainability? How many times did I hear about how unsustainable suburbs, resource depletion rates, etc are? What did I take away from it - nothing. It seems like most of the people didn't really believe in what they were preaching. They certainly weren't taking big action against the status quo. Nice to talk about it a lot though.
Here's a happy thought - this consumerism has led to a national debt of 10.5 Trillion dollars, and total US obligations greater than 60 TRILLION DOLLARS. This is more than the value of all printed money in existence PLUS the value of all gold mined from the planet - ever. This is greater than the GDP of the entire planet.
All because we expect we should be able to buy plastic dinosaurs for 2 dollars each.
Jon - you hit it on the head for me with the practicing what you preach and how everyone (including me!) can do more. Stand on all the soap boxes you can, brother! I will digress by saying this sort of thing is why I got disgusted with DC and why I can't respect Al Gore.
ReplyDeleteChris - Start that blog! I'd love to hear what everyone is doing and I think we brainstorm well as a group. You are right it takes a ton of commitment and time. I feel like Bill and can do lots of things largely because our lifestyle permits us the time and resources. We were talking, for example, about making our own peanut butter, which seems like a possibility for us because we have the time and pantry space. I wouldn't imagine most folks would be really able to consider such things given their other life commitments.
One other thing the blog could help us with is kick starting that farm cooperative you've mentioned before. There is no reason for all of us to make our own peanut butter if making one large batch takes the same or less effort than making 6 small batches.
You guys rock.
Chris - I agree with JoAnna that we should get something going on avoiding consumerism or easy ways to live with a smaller footprint. Practicing what we preach isn't easy but overanalysis leads to inertia. If we are preachin' it, we should already have done some sort of analysis about why it is we say it should be done. At first it is difficult (man, i have to carry that out of the store without a bag) but soon it becomes second nature and we can move on to the next issue. Additionally, some of us are in a place where there is less of a luxury to make "practicing" choices but also will have many hands to help with other things (like canning and sheep raising) in the not so distant future...
ReplyDelete