{"id":1586246,"date":"2024-03-27T15:49:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T15:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?guid=bdcd3826dd928fa63141e01518365d59"},"modified":"2024-03-27T15:49:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T15:49:10","slug":"as-climate-change-threatens-cultural-treasures-museums-get-creative-to-conserve-both-energy-and-artifacts-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/27\/as-climate-change-threatens-cultural-treasures-museums-get-creative-to-conserve-both-energy-and-artifacts-2\/","title":{"rendered":"As climate change threatens cultural treasures, museums get creative to conserve both energy and artifacts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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There are more museums in the U.S. than there are Starbucks and McDonald’s combined<\/a>. Within walking distance of the Grist office in downtown Seattle, there’s a pinball museum, an NFT museum, a Jimi Hendrix-inspired museum of pop culture, and Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry, just to name a few. From tiny mom-and-pop museums dedicated to niche topics to massive institutions like The Met and The Smithsonian, museums are widely viewed as some of the most trustworthy<\/a> sources of information, and also as trusted stewards of cultural artifacts.<\/p>\n But, in part because of the treasured objects they house, museums often have outsize carbon footprints — and they are also uniquely vulnerable to climate impacts.<\/p>\n “It’s because we have these really strict regulations on keeping temperature and relative humidity at certain levels in the name of preserving the collections,” said Caitlin Southwick, a former art conservator who now runs an organization called Ki Culture<\/a> that helps museums transition to more sustainable practices.<\/p>\n As purveyors of a public good, museums, galleries, and other cultural entities have often been excused from the climate conversation, she said, and in some cases even from regulation<\/a>. But, she added, museums can actually be some of the most carbon-intensive buildings in cities.<\/p>\n The field of cultural preservation has other environmental issues as well, like the use of toxic chemicals to clean or restore artworks<\/a>. But climate control represents a particularly bedeviling problem, since more energy use contributes to climate change, which in turn causes greater temperature extremes that necessitate even more energy use to maintain a controlled indoor environment (sometimes known as the “doom loop” of AC<\/a>).<\/p>\n As climate change increasingly leaves no city untouched, museums are confronting the reality that rising temperatures and volatile weather threaten their conservation efforts — and they’re turning to new technologies, and, in some cases, challenging conventional conservation wisdom, to stay ahead and minimize their impact.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n