The climate conversation is finally changing at the Royal BC Museum

by Eden Chipperfield September 13, 2026 CHEK TV NEWS

A new exhibit at the Royal British Columbia Museum explores how climate change is reshaping British Columbia’s ecosystems and impacting communities within the province. 

The exhibit explores connections between climate, people, wildlife, and landscapes through interactive displays, archival photographs, and specimens to show how human activities are changing the Earth’s climate and how it will shape B.C.’s future.

“It’s hard to see the predictions that I learned about in, like, 2003- 2004 in my intro to geology classes basically come to pass over the last few years,” said Victoria Arbour, manager of research and collections and curator of paleontology at the museum. 

“We’re talking about the science of climate change, how we know it’s real, the impacts it has around us and also looking at the human side of things. How we got here, how people have been trying to tackle climate problems and where we might be going into the future.”

A previous rendition of the exhibit debuted in 2005 and showed predictions of what the impacts of climate change would look like in the future. Now, 21 years later, the impacts of climate change have become more prominent. 

“It’s happening much, much faster than it ever has before. And we know that it’s happening specifically because of human actions. So that means that we have a responsibility to do something about that, even though climate change is natural,” says Arbour. 

“When climate changes too quickly, species can’t necessarily adapt quickly, and that’s how you get extinctions.” 

An example of “natural climate change” is events like the ice age, when the Earth enters cycles that often last up to 100,000 years. During this time, global temperatures warmed and cooled by three degrees, up to eight. 

“I spent a lot of the last few years feeling really frustrated, angry and worried because all of those predictions I learned about, it’s all happening,” said Arbour.

“One of the things that’s most striking to me is that we talk so candidly about fire season now, and that was not something I grew up with and wasn’t even something in my later years.”

A unique aspect of the exhibit is various testimonials from climate change survivors who have experienced various climate events over the last few years in B.C.

“We’ve worked with 300 climate disaster survivors across Canada and around the world, and what we know is that these are very impactful experiences resulting in the loss of loved ones, livelihoods, homes,” said Sean Holman, professor of environmental and climate journalism at the University of Victoria. 

“They’re also incredibly meaningful experiences, incredibly heavy experiences that result in opportunities for change as well.”

One of those survivors is Graham Zillwood, who was affected by the atmospheric river flooding in 2021. 

“I was living by the Othello Tunnels on the Coquihalla River, and we had that atmospheric river that came up overnight. So the next morning my land was being eaten away. My trees, my house, everything I owned was in the river.”

Zillwood warns that it’s important to share these stories because incidents can happen at any time with a changing climate. 

“I have a go bag ready just in case. I lost all my family pictures from forever. I have no memories anymore; those are all gone.”

Jane Armstrong shares her story about her sister Tracy, who died during the 2021 heat dome.

“She didn’t have AC. She had a fan that wasn’t working. Yeah, it just overcame her. And part of that complication was that she suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and she didn’t seem to sense the heat.”

Armstrong says she shared Tracy’s story to honour her sister and raise awareness of how climate change affects people in real time. 

“ I have that survivor’s guilt, and I just wish I had actually gone to her apartment to see for myself what the temperature was in her apartment, because she wasn’t fine,” says Armstrong.

The Climate Change: Everything is Connected exhibit is a permanent feature at the museum.

Video clips are contained in the original story here

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