A plan for Sustainability at MUSE

In the Sustainability Gallery…

Lots of different issues are explored and examined in the Sustainability Gallery, thanks to information points, videos and artefacts: these physical items, more than anything else, provide examples and immediate explanations of the changes we are witnessing.

Here are some of the main topics:

The Anthropocene

Have you ever heard of the Anthropocene? According to many scientists, we are living in a whole new epoch defined by the human impact on earth’s geology. Science has not yet officially adopted the term, although the evidence of our impact grows with every passing day: traces which will still be visible in the rock strata hundreds of thousands of years from now.

To explain this concept, the Sustainability Gallery displays a Plastiglomerate, a “rock” formed by molten plastic material which, as it solidifies, fuses with anything present in the surrounding environment, from rock fragments to human debris.

Environmental restoration

In recent years, a number of projects have been launched with the goal of restoring natural habitats damaged by human activities: one of these is the MaRHE Center of the University of Milan Bicocca, which aims to ensure the survival of the species that live among the coral reefs, some of the world’s richest biodiversity spots.

In the Sustainability Gallery, you can discover what is being done and what it is possible to do to protect and defend these natural habitats in all their complexity.

Yesterday’s futures

How did the men and women of the past picture the future? We can be sure that their predictions were based on their own knowledge, ideals and desires. Could they ever have imagined the things that are happening today? And what about us: what images of the future must we cultivate in order to overcome the challenges of sustainability?

Find lots of food for thought inspired by images from the start of the last century, which provide a window into how the year two thousand was imagined.