Museums and the Challenge of Cultural Decarbonization

Cultural institutions are now coming to terms with the uncomfortable truth that they are deeply embedded in the high-carbon civilization that has fueled the climate crisis. Not only does the creation, maintenance, and operation of culture involve constant energy use, but institutions exist in the distinctive economic system that thrives on the extensive use of resources and the accumulation of fossil capital. Culture’s connection with the energy system goes much deeper, as cultural production is a crucial part of the value system that has co-evolved with the material world of the Anthropocene, a widely—though not officially by geologists—recognized geological epoch defined by the unprecedented destruction of the Earth’s ecosystem by human activity. This overlap between culture and energy is the foundation of energy humanities, which critique how modern cultural production has conspired with, and sometimes resisted, an energetic world system.