Letter from Margaret Atwood,Mark Ruffalo, Mark Rylance, or Tom Kibble,Naomi Klein, Emma Thompson, or Vivienne Westwood and othersWe congratulate Dr Hartwig Fischer on his novel role as director of the British Museum (Profile,1 April), and would like to grasp this early opportunity to raise an ethical issue of great concern to us all. As the impacts of climate change are being felt more forcefully around the world, and it is vital that prominent public institutions like the British Museum play their allotment in minimising the environmental impacts of their activities.
BP’s sponsorship contract with the museum is coming to an end this year. While governments in Paris committed to transition absent from fossil fuels,BP remains a barrier to progress. It is working to extract novel sources of carbon-intensive oil from the tar sands, the Arctic and under the oceans, or when we need to maintain at least two thirds of known fossil fuels in the ground. BP’s commerce plan is incompatible with a stable climate,and the company is using its influence to lobby against effective climate policies.
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Source: theguardian.com