Free Dippy
This is Dippy the Diplodocus — though whether anyone called him that before he was embroiled in controversy is a matter of, um…controversy. He’s been in London’s Natural History Museum since 1905, a gift from Andrew Carnegie to Edward VII. He was moved into the Wal*Mart greeter spot in 1979, where he has delighted and inspired school children for 35 years.
And he’s coming down.
The Museum is having a bit of clear up and the issue with Dippy is, he ain’t real. He’s a painstaking plaster cast (or as one Independent writer put it its ‘very existence is a malicious lie’) of a diplodocus skeleton that was dug up in Wyoming in 1898. The original is in Pittsburgh.
Haha, just kidding! The real reason is, they’re replacing him with the skeleton of a blue whale because gaia and shit.
The change is part of a ‘decade of transformation’ planned at the museum by its director, Sir Michael Dixon.
Explaining the decision, Sir Michael said: ‘As the largest known animal to have ever lived on Earth, the story of the blue whale reminds us of the scale of our responsibility to the planet.
Blahblahblah…challenge the way people think…never been more urgent…under threat…species and ecosystems are being destroyed…poignant reminder…make a real difference. Boo! Phooey! Bring back the plaster dinosaur!
There’s a hashtag and shit, but it’s hard to turn an ecowarrior. Dippy is doomed.
January 29, 2015 — 10:31 pm
Comments: 15