SCIENCE MUSEUM
BOYCOTT
Photo Credit: Denise Laura Baker
The Education Climate Coalition has announced a school boycott of the Science Museum until they drop Adani as sponsors.
Adani sponsors the Science Museum’s Energy Revolution gallery. Adani is one of the biggest coal companies in the world, still ramping up its production of coal and constructing new coal-fired power stations. They have also been accused of stock-market manipulation and fraud. Adani’s CEO, Gautum Adani, alongside six other Adani executives, is under indictment by the USA for bribery (for a solar project showcased in the Energy Revolution gallery).
Teaching resource pack
This teaching resources pack has been developed in the lead up to COP31 in Antalya (Türkiye) by teachers who are active in the educational boycott of the Science Museum, campaigning for an end to its last remaining fossil fuel sponsorship with coal and weapons producer Adani.
As members of the National Education Union, and various teacher-led organisations such as the Ministry of Eco Education and the Education Climate Coalition - we feel the need to act collectively by boycotting school trips to the Science Museum. This action is needed as the Museum is not taking on board individual teachers’ concerns about the suitability of its coal and weapons producing sponsor, Adani—which fronts the Museum’s only climate and energy gallery—being advertised as a destination for school trips.
In taking this action we feel that our students, who might have questions about the cancellation or re-direction of their school trips, deserve a space in their learning time to unpack the questions that underpin live debates about ethical sponsorship, such as:
Who is responsible for the climate crisis?
What are the most effective ways to respond to climate change?
What should the Science Museum be doing at this time of climate crisis?
What is greenwashing?
What is a ‘stakeholder’ - and who should be listened to?
What is sponsorship, and what would happen without it?
How do people work together to make change happen?
The pack includes presentation slides and print resources for interactive class discussions, which you can pick and choose from. Whether or not you, your NEU branch or your school is currently boycotting the Science Museum, this resource provides a route into wider conversation about ethics, power, influence, and citizenship.
To ensure accuracy and inclusivity we have consulted with various organisations who have been involved in campaigning together to end the Science Museum’s promotion of fossil fuel and human rights abusing companies, as part of the Fossil Free Science Museum coalition. We are grateful to the organisations listed below, which contributed to this resource with information from their own research and testimonies from those on the frontlines of Adani’s coal and resource extraction.
FULL TEACHER PACK
PRINTABLES
TAKE ACTION WITH US
As a teacher or educator, you can support the NEU boycott both as an individual and using collective action at your school.
Sign our collective letter, then share it to your colleagues
Register a NEU-staff boycott of the Science Museum at your school
Register a whole-school boycott
Want to pass this on to non-educators?
Education Climate Coalition is one of several groups seeking a boycott of the Science Museum over it’s sponsorship by Adani and BP. Find their descriptions and links to their campaigns below - please consider signing and supporting their campaigns if their descriptions encompass you, or pass on these campaigns to parents, culture workers or academics in your life.
Parents for
Palestine
P4P are UK parents from all backgrounds and denominations who come together to protest the violence, devastation and death faced in Palestine. They are asking parents to request their schools pause visits to the Science Museum until they drop their partnership with Adani, who along with being the world’s largest private producer of coal is a major producer of arms and military equipment to Israel, including in partnership with Elbit systems.
Culture
unstained
Culture Unstained are a research, engagement and campaigning organisation which aims to end fossil fuel sponsorship of culture. They have been campaigning for years to pressure the Science Museum to drop fossil fuel sponsors including Adani, BP, Shell and Equinor.
They are working with culture workers, academics and scientists on their latest boycott push - including a signed letter to board trustees and a pledge to refuse engagement events with the museum.