Scientists Turn on the Science Museum

London's Science Museum gets substantial sponsorship from the Shell Petrochemicals Company. That fossil fuel company has arranged 'gagging clauses' with the museum, to reduce any criticism of its activities. Two UK scientists (Steve and Dee Allen), have now refused to allow the Science Museum to feature their seminal work on global plastic pollution (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/16/science-museum-shell-links-pollution-experts-refuse-show-work). Plastics are, of course, manufactured from oil products. The Allens say that the Shell sponsorship and subsequent gagging clause, means that "the Science Museum is no longer a credible scientific institution". It will be interesting to see whether other scientists follow their example. It could mean, however, that some areas of research (like global plastic pollution) get less prominence in financially conflicted museums. Shell is also returning to a UK HQ and losing its 'Royal Dutch' prefix (https://www.ft.com/content/c3a4835b-85e5-4895-86a2-cb4d3f372940)). This is not as a result of its remorse at its closures of UK research centres post Brexit. The move appears to be entirely a financial matter, freeing the company from new regulations to its share ownership. Shell may, however, have come to regard the UK as more likely than the EU, to enable them to carry on their environmentally-damaging activities for longer.