ICOM Voices How can museums talk about the environment? A public consultation at the Montréal Biosphère

Keywords: Biosphère, Montreal, ecological transition, environmental education (EE), public consultation, citizen museology

Recently integrated into Espace pour la Vie[1], the largest natural science museum complex in Canada, the Montreal Biosphère updated its mission in August 2021. A participatory exhibition entitled Imagine the Biosphère!, accessible in a new room dedicated to citizen initiatives, aimed to explore the public’s interests in environmental issues. Nearly 10,000 people were consulted over a ten-month period between June 2022 and April 2023. Their views shed new light on ways in which museums can approach the social-ecological transition.

The Biosphère’s programming focuses on three areas (science, arts and civic engagement) to raise public awareness of environmental issues and encourage people to participate in the social-ecological transition. To guide its programming for the years to come, and with the knowledge that civic engagement is essential to success in fighting climate change, the museum turned to its visitors and invited them to “imagine the Biosphère”.

The exhibition, which was fully accessible and eco-responsible, featured simple, colourful scenography and reused or reusable materials.

Visitors to the exhibition were asked three questions: “What would you like to learn at the Biosphère? What rarely covered environmental topics would you like to hear more about? What have you heard enough about?” Visitors could choose from multiple answers to the first question, while the other two questions were open-ended so as not to influence the responses. All of the answers were collected, processed and analysed by a survey company.

Visitors could answer these three questions in the exhibition room, using fun, analogue installations (drawing, writing, manipulating objects) or a short questionnaire on a touch screen. More than 9,000 people responded. The consultation was particularly popular with young people, with more than half the responses coming from visitors under 16 and nearly a quarter from those aged 16 to 34.

An online survey collected responses from more than 800 additional people, three-fourths of whom had not visited the museum. These respondents came mainly from Québec (96%), and one-third self-identified as being part of an ethnic, religious or aboriginal community or a sexual or gender minority, or as having a disability (31%). A knowledge-based question showed that most of the people surveyed had the knowledge and tools to contribute to the social-ecological transition. We will refer to them as the “informed” public in the rest of this text.

From the responses, we were able to conclude that everyone surveyed, regardless of age, would like to learn more about food, water, climate change, the overexploitation of resources and extreme weather events. Responsible consumption and land use planning were also topics of interest to everyone.

In addition to these topics, young adults aged 18-34 and the “informed” public said that they wanted to learn more about inequality and discrimination in the face of climate change. Adults aged 35-64 and the “informed” public wanted to learn more about environmental impacts on health. Those aged 6-15, whose social lives were upended in recent years by the pandemic, were the only ones to express a desire to learn more about new viruses.

In conclusion, some general topics are of interest to everyone, while specific audiences are more interested in specialised topics.

Respondents were asked about their concerns and the issues they felt were not being addressed in the public sphere. The three topics they mentioned most were environmental protection, social injustice and inequality, and collective action.

Visitors left emotional, heartfelt messages calling for better conservation of nature and biodiversity.

Respondents noted that eco-racism, ecofeminism and climate justice are often sidelined in public debates. As one person put it, “It’s the poorest who have to make all the effort, while the richest […] consume the most!”.

The “informed” public stressed the importance of raising awareness of collective action. One respondent would like the museum to present “anything that offers people of all ages concrete solutions so that [they] can be empowered to change things, individually and then collectively through activism”.

Finally, specific topics stood out among both the youngest and oldest visitors. Children under 16 overwhelmingly expressed a desire to see animals placed front and centre. Those aged 65 and over said that two topics deserved more attention: aboriginal knowledge of the environment and the environmental impact on human health.

What do visitors want and what topics are they tired of hearing about?

1.       Climate change: a hackneyed topic

Respondents said they were tired of hearing too much about climate change, even though it was a topic of great interest, according to answers to the first question. We hypothesise that certain words have been used so often that they have become irritating. Similarly, transport (carpooling, bicycling, electric cars, etc.) was the second-most tiresome topic for Biosphère visitors, especially for people aged 50 and over.

2.       No more scaremongering

The “informed” public said it was tired of the media using alarmist discourse that only emphasises problems. In our view, this confirms the hypothesis that certain topics should be approached from new angles by proposing solutions instead of catastrophising.

3.       Avoiding guilt

Among those surveyed, the promotion of individual actions to protect the environment came third in the list of most tiresome topics. For the “informed” public and older visitors, plastic straws and waste sorting take up too much space in the public discourse compared to the actions of governments or industries, which carry more weight globally. It seems more motivating to highlight efforts we can collectively contribute to rather than focus on individual actions.

4.       Speaking differently about the environment

These results convinced the Biosphère of the need to approach environmental topics in a way that does not make people feel guilty, by spreading hope, so that visitors can imagine positive outcomes and create a collective movement towards a fair and ecological future. The museum therefore presents artistic and scientific content that is user-friendly and focused on solutions. Difficult topics that are often overlooked, such as climate displacement, animal extinction and the science of emotions around climate change, are addressed in a compassionate way.

In conclusion, the participation of 10,000 people was a surprise. The success of the consultation will allow the Biosphère to build on the results with confidence and offer appealing content that can find an audience. The enthusiasm around the survey also testifies to people’s commitment to environmental protection and their interest in becoming actively involved in museums.

As trusted sources of information, museums have an important role to play in inspiring, engaging and continuing the societal dialogue on environmental issues and solutions.

[1] Montreal’s Espace pour la Vie museums encourage people to live in harmony with nature. The Biodôme, Biosphère, Insectarium, Jardin Botanique and Planétarium form the largest natural science complex in Canada, welcoming more than 2.4 million visitors annually.