Life and Lessons on Planet Earth
Videos around the topic of Environmental Change for Great North Museum: Hancock
The world’s most famous Diplodocus skeleton cast Dippy has made it safe and sound to Newcastle’s Great North Museum: Hancock and is currently on display wowing visitors young and old, where it will stay until October 6th.
With Dippy as a lure at one end of the museum, our brief was to produce a series of short videos around the topic of environmental change to educate visitors as they traveled through the museum. Dippy’s presence is especially pertinent to the content of these videos given we’re entering the sixth period of mass extinction. Each of the videos covers a different subject matter – Sea-Level Rise, Coal, Invasive Species and Extinction – and as such involved working with environmental scientists and researchers from Newcastle and Durham universities.
Producing these videos seemed especially timely as it coincided with the recent Extinction Rebellion protests in cities across the UK, indeed an extinction rebellion event was held at the Museum alongside these animations. Much of what we learned whilst researching and speaking with the scientists involved was as worrying as you might expect – that is, deeply, deeply worrying – and we think it’s of prime importance that young people have the opportunity to learn about and engage with these global issues.
The videos will remain on display in the Great North Museum after Dippy has continued on his tour and will be shown in the Natural History Museum when Dippy returns to London. We sincerely hope that they’ll help to inspire the next generation of environmental activists as the environmental situation becomes ever more critical.
