TV presenter Hannah Fry has stepped down as a trustee at the Science Museum because of its ties to coal giant Adani.
After signing a sponsorship agreement with the fossil fuel company, the museum’s 37-year-old mathematician quit her position.
She stated that she had to leave the role because she felt ‘with a heavy soul’. However, she couldn’t continue to work ‘while it isn’t listening to the very people it was created to inspire’.
Professor Fry’s resignation comes after around 30 members of the UK Student Climate Network (UKSCN) staged a ‘sleep over’ at museum in protest against the sponsorship.
Hannah Fry, TV presenter, has resigned as a trustee of the Science Museum due to its ties with Adani coal giant.
Last week, the Science Museum introduced a new gallery, Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery. This gallery is supported and funded by a subsidiary company of the Adani Group
She told The Times: I share the concerns of many that energy companies present themselves as transitioning while spending vast sums on creating new mines and finding new oil fields.
“By allowing such relationships with these companies, it is my concern that the science museum gives away the false impression that scientists believe that fossil fuel companies can avoid disaster.”
Last week, the Science Museum unveiled a new gallery, Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery. This gallery is supported and funded by a subsidiary company of the Adani Group.
Adani is a multinational conglomerate engaged in coal extraction as well as coal-fired power plants.
Photographs showed protesters lying down around an origami design that said “drop shell” on the floor.
Professor Fry stated that this is a debate in which young people are leading, and that I cannot continue in my post while the museum doesn’t listen to the people it was created to inspire.
As a trustee, Professor Fry — who has presented shows including A Day in the Life of Earth — was responsible for the management of the Science Museum group.
UKCSN on Wednesday held a candlelit vigil for the ‘victims of the museum’s fossil fuel sponsors: Shell, BP, Equinor and Adani’ before making origami shells into the early hours.
Photographs of the protesters were taken around an origami pattern that read ‘dropshell’ on the ground.
To inform the museum’s visitors about its sponsorship deals with fossil fuel companies, the demonstrators spoke to them this morning.
Alexander Penson, a biologist, took part in the sit in. He said that it was ‘appalling” that the museum continued to sponsor fossil fuels and started a new relationship Adani.
He said this in an Instagram Live video that UKSCN London captured inside the museum.
‘We can all agree that we need new green infrastructure, that we need green jobs… but you can’t just then forget about the dirty infrastructure that we need to retire.’
UK Student Climate Network protest against the Science Museum´s sponsorship deals with fossil fuel companies
Shell has been criticised for funding the museum’s Our Future Planet exhibition on carbon capture and storage as well as nature-based solutions to climate change.
The agreement with Shell contained a gagging clause. This means that Shell cannot be accused of saying anything that might damage its reputation.
UKCSN also previously staged demonstrations outside the Science Museum, alongside activists from the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion.