Catch that CO2!: A review of Our Future Planet

Catch that CO₂! – a review of the Science Museum’s exhibition on Carbon capturing:

I know, it is this topic again; the topic that has been discussed over and over again, but not much solution has been given out apart from making us feel disheartened. In the middle of who knows which wave of the pandemic we are in, the Science Museum’s free exhibition- Future of Our Planet, gives viewers some more optimistic news. 

Firstly, the exhibition emphasised some real hard truths that we already know: our vast carbon emission is destroying the planet. Since CO₂ molecules are very stable, it stays in the atmosphere for a very long time, even hundreds of years, and therefore, heat energy is trapped in our atmosphere, instead of going into outer space. We have probably all seen it on the news and the papers: Australian wildfires, Yorkshire flooding, rising sea levels, the list goes on; it is estimated that by 2050, a billion people may face displacement. Planting trees to take out CO₂ and reduce emissions is not enough anymore.

The good news I gleaned from the exhibition is that scientists have found out ways to capture CO₂ to fight against climate change. Two machines were being exhibited; one is a CO₂ collector from Climeworks that looks quite like an industrial fan; it filters out the CO₂ and safely stores it and releases the clean air without the greenhouse gas. The accompanying description makes it more fascinating: “ [one unit of Climework’s ] air cleaner removes 50 tonnes of CO₂from the atmosphere every year – the same amount produced by six homes annually.” 

The second machine is the mechanical tree, which, like a tree, absorbs the CO₂ from the air, using its special paper. Once the papers are full, they are lowered and wetted in water where CO₂ is extracted and bubbled off to be used to make fire hydrants. A cluster of 12 mechanical trees can absorb the amount of carbon dioxide produced by 44 average UK homes annually, a little bit less than Climework. I thought it would have been better if the exhibtion had stated how much carbon is needed to make these machines, so people can compare the two. 

The exhibition also involves several interactive games for children to get involved in and it was heartening to see so many teenagers and children (especially little ones) with their parents on a Sunday morning in a science museum. At the end of the day, we are all in this together. 

Interestingly, the first thing we saw coming out from the South Kensington station were a bunch of people, holding dusters, wearing bright blue eyeshadows with baby pink hair rollers in their hair- dressed up as cleaners (we later found out that they were staff of the museum). It was a confusing sight at first but actually, they were campaigning for removing sponsorship from fossil fuel companies for the museum, to reclaim the integrity of the museum by “cleansing” it of dirty sponsorships. Companies like Shells, BP and Adani (all sponsors of the Science Museum) are in fact continuing to pour millions of dollars into new fossil fuel exploration while claiming to be leading the transition to renewable energy.

So, as I walked out of the museum and into the sunny and golden autumn afternoon, I had mixed emotions, feeling hopeful and worried at the same time. But what I hoped for the most was simply the blue sky above me to last that little bit longer.