How We're Speaking Up For Science

At the Field Museum, we believe in inspiring discovery, sharing engaging learning experiences, and uncovering solutions for a better world. And we invite you to join us in seeing that vision through. Here’s what we’re speaking up for:

Conservation

Both in our backyard and around the world, we’re committed to conserving resources, restoring habitats, and protecting Earth’s flora and fauna. In Peru, we helped save over two million acres of rainforest through the declaration of Yaguas National Park—the culmination of two decades of research and collaboration with the Peruvian government, indigenous populations, and other nonprofit organizations. Much closer to home, we spearheaded land restoration and educational initiatives in the Calumet Region. Inside the building, our restaurants source ingredients locally and are founding partners in the Illinois Food Scrap Coalition’s We Compost program. We remain steadfast and vocal in our support of conservation efforts across the scientific community.

Diversity in science

Science is for everyone. Our Women in Science group hosts programming to amplify women’s voices in scientific research and advocacy while providing internship and fellowship opportunities to diversify gender representation in science. Moving forward, all our traveling exhibitions will have label copy in English and Spanish, making the museum-going experience more inclusive. And our research doesn’t just explore biodiversity—from CT scanning mummies to learn more about the societies in which they lived to co-curating anthropology collections with global and immigrant communities, human diversity is central to what we do.

Climate action

Climate change is a fact. And when it comes to protecting our planet, we’re on it. We reaffirmed our unwavering support of climate action after the US withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord. In an open letter following this news, the museum's President and CEO Richard Lariviere wrote, “The Field Museum has always been a proud supporter of science and defender of life on Earth, and the country’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord will not change that.” We put these words into practice, maintaining our LEED-certified facility, conducting rapid inventories tracking the ecological health of habitats around the world, and establishing a framework for climate action in the Chicagoland and Calumet areas. We’re keeping the conversation going through advocacy events such as the Chicago Community Climate Forum in December 2017, Speak Up For Science in April 2018, and more to come.

Collections-based research

Our collections contain nearly 40 million specimens and artifacts, ranging from giraffe skeletons to tiny water beetles, from meteorites to an 11th-century scroll from China, from endangered plants to stardust—and beyond. We collect these objects to ask fundamental questions about Earth, its creatures, and its cultures. What can the changes in a bird species’ wingspans over time tell us about climate change? What can a rat tell us about Paraguay’s rainforest ecology? What can a mask tell us about colonialism? There are so many questions left to answer, and we’re speaking up for the continuation of this crucial work.

What will you speak up for? Let us know @FieldMuseum. We're all #OnItTogether.