The Climate Museum

When it comes to climate change, many of us want to make a difference but feel lost about what we can actually do to help. This is the exact question Miranda Massie set out to help people answer when she established The Climate Museum in New York City. Being the first museum dedicated solely to the environment, The Climate Museum holds a unique space in the climate justice movement. Their founding tells the story of their mission to educate transparently about the climate and enable people to find their place in the climate fight. Through installations, events, and exhibitions, their work is a testament to their goal of bridging the gap between climate science and communities.

Massie's journey to founding The Climate Museum reflects how she hopes others will find their own path in climate action. Having always felt a calling toward civic action, Miranda Massie found her roots in activism as a lawyer. In this career, she fought for civil rights, affirmative action, environmental justice, immigrant justice and disability rights in Detroit and New York. But even with a deep commitment to justice work, she felt climate anxiety looming. Though she tried to suppress this sense that she needed to work on the climate, it came to the point where she could no longer deny she needed to take action on the climate crisis.

This anxiety became even more real when, in 2008, Massie took on an environmental justice case relating to the children’s and community health. In New York’s public school PCBs, highly toxic industrial materials considered toxic waste, were leaking from light fixtures in several hundred classrooms. Exposure to PCBs, which affect children and pregnant people the most, can lead to behavioral changes, rashes, and cancer. Massie's work as a litigator directly impacted the people connected to these schools who were affected by exposure to PCBs. Working on this case against environmental injustice showed her just how much communities are influenced when their local environments don't function properly. As she puts it, she could no longer look away from the climate crisis and wanted to act to make a difference, but didn't know what to do. 

The turning point came after Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, which left parts of New York devastated. After this first hand experience seeing how climate change’s effects were no longer far off, she felt that she could no longer stand by idle. It then seemed that climate work was unavoidable, only she was still figuring out what her role could be.

When the idea for a museum dedicated to climate came to Massie, she thought that it had already existed. It was as if she had read about it before or was half-remembering hearing about it somewhere. However, she was shocked to find that nothing like it existed in the US, finding only one museum like this located in the outskirts of Hong Kong. From this vision, Massie understood that her idea needed to become a reality and in 2014 she left her job as a lawyer. One year later, she officially became the founder of The Climate Museum.

With 17 exhibitions and over 250 events hosted since 2015,The Climate Museum has empowered over 166K visitors to see their own agency and take on meaningful civic action on climate. Their work combines art, education, and calls to action through free and accessible exhibitions, art installations, advocacy resources, events, youth programs, and more. 

What is most admirable about their work is how they pile together the research to build transparency on issues relating to environmental justice, using this understanding to create differences in local and global communities. From 2022-2024 they exhibited a pop-up titled The End of Fossil Fuels.  Featuring interactive installations, a five-foot mural, and educational panels, they tell the story of the energy industry. They do not shy away from the hard facts. Infographics stand tall all over the exhibit, displaying evidence of environmental injustices, showing the disastrous impacts felt across the United States, and highlighting climate inequalities that impact local communities. As the exhibit continues, they reveal truth after truth, which means much more than just uncovering the ugly parts. The exhibit is filled with materials proving that there is history behind having hope. Through success stories, inspirations of imagined futures, and messages defining the concrete change climate action creates, The Climate Museum lives up to its mission. They inspire action through beautiful art, deepen scientific and historical understanding, strengthen community, and bring light to just solutions, empowering their visitors to join the climate action. 

Using art and education as vehicles of understanding, The Climate Museum succeeds at addressing visitors who feel overwhelmed, intimidated, complicit, or silenced on the climate crisis. Better yet, they guide people to feeling hopeful and empowered to create change. Massie's approach extends beyond the museum walls with practical advice for anyone struggling to find their role in climate action. In a final note during an interview, Massie says, "I invite everyone … who worries about the climate crisis and feels guilty about not acting on it to not feel guilty. There is always a lag time between climate awareness and climate action. In fact, now is the time when your actions can make the most difference." She then gives advice that is simple yet powerful: start by having climate conversations with people in your life and calling your elected representatives. As The Climate Museum prepares to open its permanent home in 2029, Massie's vision continues to grow. What started as one person's way of finding her place in the climate fight has become a pathway for thousands of others to do the same.