London's can't miss eco-exhibitions and events

MELTDOWN: Visualizing Climate Change, Horniman Museum

Project Pressure's MELTDOWN exhibition at the Horniman teaches us all about glaciers, from why they're useful to what's going on with them - and the consequences of this meltdown. Project Pressure commissions artists from around the world to document the world's vanishing glaciers in ways that are visually arresting and will incite the public to action, like Peter Funch's vintage postcard series and Noémie Goudal’s large-scale photographic installation which mirrors the shifting glacial landscape (it's printed on biodegradable paper, naturally).

Photo: 2014, Simon Norfolk, The Lewis Glacier Mt Kenya 1963, courtesy of Project Pressure

Extinction Rebellion display, V&A Museum of Childhood

The V&A has acquired a series of assets linked to Extinction Rebellion (XR), now on display in a free exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood. These include the activist organisation's open-source Extinction Symbol - created by street artist ESP in 2011 - photographs of protesters and flags carried during demonstrations. The images of children are especially powerful for other kids to see since they'll recognise that many of the faces of the strikers-in-action are even younger than they are.

Eco-visionaries, Royal Academy

Featuring 21 works by international artists and designers from Oliafur Eliasson to Virgil Abloh, this exhibition aims to render our environmental catastrophe in visual terms to engage and ignite viewers' emotional responses. Why it's a can't miss? Spanish architect Andrés Jaques' 'Island House', which sprays out collected rainwater in order to combat drought, and Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg's digital recreation of the last male white rhino, who died in 2018.

Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life, Tate Modern

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson is obsessed with exploring the natural world, and this exhibition confronts the viewer with the natural world in many exciting forms, letting visitors touch a wall of Scandinavian reindeer lichen, run through a veil of mist and and walk through a dense, blinding cloud of fog in Blind Passenger. As you can probably guess, it's brilliant for kids.

Mushrooms: The Art, Design and Future of Fungi, Somerset House

Mushrooms are kicking off the new year at Somerset House in this exhibition that explores sustainability and the rather remarkable powers of this fungus. It includes exciting designs from Tom Dixon, Matty Bovan and Carsten Höller, talks on the health benefits of mushrooms, a mushroom-inspired pop up dining experience from Skye Gyngell and more. Fun fact: mushrooms grown in Somerset House's coalholes also feature as part of the project, available in new dishes in the venue's on-site restaurants.

Moving to Mars, Design Museum

The Design Museum's immersive Mars exhibition isn't just a fantastic experience for kids and adults, where you can try on Christopher Raeburn space uniforms and build Rovers with LEGO bricks, but it also asks the big questions about whether Mars is the answer to helping us solve our own climate crisis (this is disputed by activists, who worry that focusing too much attention on another planet forces us to lose track of caring for our own). We'll let you tell us how you feel once you've explored Mars through your own eyes... without leaving London.

David Attenborough's Our Planet Live in Concert, The O2

Climate change in concert? Yes, please. David Attenborough's Emmy Award winning Netflix series Our Planet is getting the multimedia full concert treatment. In October 2020, the new immersive experience, narrated on screen by Attenborough, combines the stunning natural world visuals of Our Planet with innovative live production effects, including a 66-piece orchestra and live vocalist, Lisa Hannigan, as well as giant screens and smart lighting to create an out-of-this-world experience for viewers.

Photo: Our Planet. Photo: JamieMcPherson/Silverback/Netflix

The Story Garden at the British Library

This sustainable, mobile urban garden at King's Cross began life as a garden in a skip. Designed by charity Global Generation, The Story Garden - its latest incarnation - is an educational green space which teaches the next generation everything from where our food comes from to how to how to look after the natural environment. There are workshops, events and projects to get stuck into. The garden will become a permanent fixture in King's Cross in 2022.

Water - From Source to Tap exhibition at the ICE

This free interactive exhibition at The Institution of Civil Engineers London is designed to teach kids all about water engineering, the sewage system and fatbergs, those growing sewage monsters beneath London. The exhibition also highlights global water engineering projects and gives children the opportunity to unleash their inner civil engineer with LEGO kits.

Photo: LEGO, c/o ICE

Plogging: what is it, and where can you do it in London?

Forget just walking: the next time you hit the park for a weekend stroll, bring some gloves and a bin bag and start collecting litter - all the kids are doing it, and this is one time where you'll feel OK submitting to peer pressure. The website Plogolution organises London plogs - and provides all the free kit - if you'd like to do it in a more formal way, or use it as an excuse to socialise with other like-minded, climate-protecting souls.

Being Human exhibition, Wellcome Collection

Being Human is the new permanent gallery space opened at the Wellcome in September 2019, which explores what it means to be alive in these uncertain times. The final part of the exhibition is devoted to examining climate change. Highlights include Superflex's short film, Flooded MacDonald’s - a life-sized replica of the eponymous fast food chain filling with water - and a piece from Yinka Shonibare's Refugee Astronaut series.