At the Museum 



American Museum o Natural History 



Earth on the Edge 



Anyone who has seen The Twilight Zone episode "The 

 Midnight Sun" won't soon forget the mercury exploding 

 from the top of a thermometer as Earth moves inexorably to- 

 ward the Sun. In a chilling twist, the story ends with humans 

 facing the opposite circumstance, the Earth is moving away 

 from the Sun, an equally terrifying prospect over which they 

 also have no control — and hence, no hope. 



Of course, that is fantasy, science fiction. Today, the very 

 real, human-induced warming of the Earth provides our own 

 looming doomsday scenarios — possible droughts, rising sea 

 levels, more intense storms, and other events with poten- 

 tially harmful effects on the health of society and the natural 

 world. But the very fact of human responsibility raises the 

 possibility for creative solutions to the problem, and that is 

 an important and hopeful message of the timely new exhibi- 

 tion Climate Change: The Threat to Life and A New Energy 

 Future, which opens October 18. 



"Evidence has been accumulating for some time that Earth 

 is warming due to human activity," said Museum President El- 

 len V. Futter, "but we are only just beginning to come to terms 

 with the breadth of the consequences of this phenomenon, 

 and to learn what we can do to mitigate them. The fact is," 

 Ms. Futter continued, "we do have options; but implementing 

 solutions will require individual, communal, and global action. 

 Climate Change will examine both the consequences of global 

 warming and possible solutions to this critical problem." 



Scientists have documented a dramatic increase in green- 

 house gases in the atmosphere over the past 150 years — es- 

 pecially carbon dioxide — caused primarily by the burning 

 of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other changes in land use. 

 Climate Change uses realistic dioramas, interactive stations, 

 dynamic animations, compelling wall text, and more to pro- 

 vide context for today's urgent headlines, while empowering 

 and encouraging visitors of all ages to take an active part in 

 our planet's future. 



"We have strength in numbers," said the curator of the 

 exhibition, Edmond A. Mathez, Curator, Earth and Planetary 

 Sciences, AMNH Division of Physical Sciences, adding, 

 "We're a rich, highly educated country, and we have a re- 

 sponsibility to lead." 



A central part of the exhibition explores the effects of cli- 

 mate change on several separate but interrelated areas: Earth's 

 atmosphere, polar ice sheets, ocean, and land. A mini-diorama 

 in the land section illustrates the local impact of climate 

 change on land animals in the tropics and the importance of 

 ongoing field work by Museum scientists. The scene tells the 

 story of a chameleon that could go extinct between 2050 and 

 2100 if it migrates higher and higher up the mountains of 

 Madagascar to compensate for warming temperatures at its 



www.amnh.org 



current altitude, accord- 

 ing to a paper published 

 recently in Global Change 

 Biology by Christopher 

 Raxworthy, AMNH As- 

 sociate Dean of Science for 

 Education and Exhibition, 

 Richard G. Pearson, a 

 biodiversity specialist with the Museum's Center for Biodi- 

 versity and Conservation, and a team of others from the U.S. 

 and around the world. Similarly, a ghostiy coral reef — a victim 

 of "coral bleaching" — shows how higher water temperatures 

 and increased carbon dioxide in the oceans are killing corals 

 and the communities that they anchor. A startling, visual 

 reminder of the human impact is a model representing one 

 ton of coal; scientists estimate that every year the equivalent 

 of three tons of coal is burned, one way or another, for every 

 person in the world. 



Throughout the exhibition, the movements of clouds, 

 ocean currents, and seasonal ice are displayed on digital 

 video globes to reveal how climate works. One dramatic fea- 

 ture depicts rising sea levels on a scale model of lower Man- 

 hattan, graphically demonstrating the flooding that would be 

 caused by the melting of ice sheets and ocean warming. 



Finally, Climate Change explores the possibilities for 

 reducing energy consumption in our daily lives, from 

 buying energy-efficient appliances to making better use of 

 mass transit, and outlines various options for future energy 

 sources, including nuclear energy; solar, wind, hydroelec- 

 tric, and geothermal power; and carbon dioxide capture and 

 sequestration technology for coal-burning power plants. In 

 essence, the exhibition is a powerful call to action. We are 

 not, after all, in the Twilight Zone. 



The exhibition, which runs through August 16, 2009, 

 before traveling to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Mexico, 

 and South America, is guest co-curated by Michael Oppen- 

 heimer, Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and 

 International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School and the De- 

 partment of Geosciences, Princeton University, New Jersey. 



Climate Change is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York (www.amnh.org), in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & 

 Heritage, United Arab Emirates; The Cleveland Museum of Natural History; The Field 

 Museum, Chicago; Instituto Sangari, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Junta de Castilla y Leon, Spain; 

 Korea Green Foundation, Seoul; Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen; 

 Papalote Museo del Nino, Mexico City, Mexico; and Saint Louis Science Center. 



Climate Change is proudly presented by Bank of America. 



Major support has also been provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. Additional sup- 

 port for Climate Change and its related educational programming has been provided 

 by Mary and David Solomon, the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation, the Linden Trust 

 for Conservation, and the Red Crane Foundation. 



