Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Speech on Museums, Animal Extinction and the Environment

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Natural Science Museum, South Kensington
Source: Thatcher Archive: DES press release
Editorial comments: 1200. MT was opening the new fossil mammal gallery at the Natural Science Museum.
Importance ranking: Minor
Word count: 460
Themes: Environment, Science & technology

MUSEUMS, ANIMAL EXTINCTION AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Opening the new fossil mammal gallery at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington today (July 14th) Mrs Margaret Thatcher M.P., Secretary of State for Education and Science said one of the results of the spread of popular education had been a vast increase in “philosophical curiosity” which was evidenced by the ever-growing attendance at museums and galleries. “At the Natural History Museum” , she said, “the attendance has doubled over the last 15 years, and the trend is still steadily upwards. No small contribution to the increase in the popularity of museum going has been made by the museums themselves who have made great advances in their methods of presentation to make their collections attractive as well as instructive. But the public will find here a gallery as far removed from the old museum concept of specimens crowded into rows of showcases as is the present-day primary schoolroom from its Victorian counterpart. Other forces encourage interest in the Museum. The Museum's own educational service which receives some 2,500 school parties numbering about 75,000 every year is sowing seed which will produce a larger crop of visitors in years to come.”

Mrs Thatcher said there was a growing public interest in the danger of extinction to many animals and in the dangers to some from today's environmental hazards. “Some fossil mammals became extinct over a period beginning within the last few hundred years and stretching back millions of years. In all cases the creatures that disappeared somehow failed to adjust themselves in some change, slow or fast, in the environment. Before the advent of man, it would be interesting to know what these changes were and palaeontological research may throw some light on this. In the recent past, the disappearance of large mammals such as the mammoth and the sabre tooth tiger occurred at an early stage in modern man's history. Then there were too few hunters about killing mammoths for food to [end p1] have had any significant effect on the animals' disappearance. Hence it would be useful to identify the real factors that must have been responsible for the extinction of these beasts. Here we might have a link to the present which could help us to find out why some animals today are put at risk while others are not. There is no doubt that the extinction of some species is largely man's responsibility; it is equally certain that man today has the responsibility to maintain in a viable condition as many as possible of the different species of animal now in existence.”

NOTE TO EDITORS

1. Ministerial responsibility for the finances of the Museum resides with the Secretary of State for Education and Science.

2. A separate press notice which describes the new Fossil Mammal Gallery in some detail has to-day been issued by the Natural History Museum.