Museums like the La Brea Tar Pits Museum highlight the role climate change has made to the ecology of our planet in the past.

By Mary O’KEEFE

Most adults and children living in Southern California have been to a local museum at least once. Public schools often have field trips to the Natural History Museum or the La Brea Tar Pits Museum. These museums, and others throughout California, have faced unprecedented times and not just because of COVID but because of climate change.

On Monday, State Senator Ben Allen led a press conference that was held at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles to bring attention to the need to safeguard museum assets as they face destruction and damage from climate-fueled disasters. He also highlighted the importance of museums in the role of education.

“The UN (United Nations) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has come out with a very frightening study highlighting the enormous impact climate change has had and will continue to have,” Allen said. “The fact of the matter is we have only seen the tip of the iceberg.”

The IPCC report released on Monday warns that the world is certain to face more extreme climate changes in the future. The report stated that if humans take action now to cut greenhouse gas emissions, they could limit the impacts but, at this point, many of Earth’s destructive consequences are already set in motion.

The extreme weather issues the Earth is facing now – such as historic droughts, stronger hurricanes and deadly heat waves – will not only continue but become more frequent and more severe.

UN Secretary General António Guterres stated the report released on Monday was a “code red for humanity.”

“The alarm bells are deafening and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk,” the Secretary General said in a statement.

Climate change has been the topic of concern with LA County Fire Dept. and other fire agencies as well. At a recent conference, LACoFD Chief Darryl Osby said that climate change plays a major role in the fire season being year-round rather than, as in the past, limited to the fall. The extremely dry vegetation results in fires occurring more often and burning faster and hotter, presenting a larger challenge for the fire crews facing down a blaze.

Allen spoke of the role museums will play in the education of the people of the planet related to climate change, adding that holding the conference at the La Brea Tar Pits was the perfect area to teach about the past and what is needed in the future.

“[La Brea Tar Pits] is a history of climate change,” he said.

The climate change that is seen at the tar pits is not one that is human-caused, but happened over thousands of years in a natural cycle of global heating and cooling. The human-caused climate change seen today occurred over a period of about 200 years and is a much more wild swing of temperatures than the minimal fluctuation that is much more normal.

“The interesting thing is the tar pits show the dramatic impact of a past climate change event that resulted in mass extinction … but as I say we are experiencing a much quicker climate crisis,” Allen said.

“[La Brea Tar Pits] is a world famous gateway to the Ice Age,” said Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga, president of the LA County Natural History Museum Foundation and director of the Natural History Museums of LA County. “What is important about this place is because of what is preserved at the tar pits. This is why we know what the Ice Age in Southern California looked like.”

She said 38 types of Ice Age mammals, mostly large mammals, were lost to extinction. The museum houses five million specimens of about 600 species of animals and plants.

“And yes we need to think about that,” she said. “They provide the backdrop of environmental changes of the past that allow scientists today to understand the impact of the rapid rate of change we see in [the world today].”

Museums are a place where the past can be studied to understand the future – not only natural history like that found at the tar pits but other museums, like the Autry Museum in Griffith Park, which keeps artifacts of the evolution of human history.

All of these museums have taken on the role of education to help emphasize the impacts of climate change and unfortunately they are in danger themselves of becoming victims of climate change.

Allen read off a list of museums that are struggling to save their exhibits and to stay in business. Many in California, especially smaller museums, are facing higher insurance rates due to increasing wildfire threats. Other museums are finding it more difficult to protect exhibits from increasing heat waves.

Because of this increasing threat from climate change, the California Cultural and Historical Endowment (CCHE) requested $125 million out of the state’s $3.7 billion investment in climate resiliency to be allocated to these museums to help prepare them for the changing world.

“This funding is important to support museums like ours in their efforts to educate our communities through exhibitions, public programs and research about the impacts of climate change, as well as to become community-centric locations. With this support, we move from being civic icons to places with true, lasting civic impact,” stated Bettison-Varga.