An exhibit at the Adler Planetarium is drawing attention after some parents and students reportedly said it presented climate change as settled science and emphasized the negative effects of fossil fuels.
The program, titled “Climate Change and Me,” is designed as an immersive experience for students in grades 5 through 8. Announced in April 2025, the 40-minute sky show was developed with researchers from NASA, activists and teachers.
However, recent attendees say the presentation went beyond scientific instruction.
“They showed our 6th graders a propaganda video, then a museum staffer asked them to raise their hands if they believed fossil fuels caused climate change,” a source told Chicago City Wire. “When some of the kids said they didn’t, the staffer told them they were wrong.”
According to the Adler Planetarium, the experience is designed to help students “understand the science behind climate change, its impact on our world, and its solutions,” and incorporates live facilitation including “small group discussions, call-and-response, and post-show experiences.”
Adler Planetarium, formerly called the Adler Planetarium and Astronomical Museum, opened on May 12, 1930, and was funded by Max Adler, a Sears & Roebuck executive.
The facility was designed to demonstrate the relative positions of more than 4,500 planets and stars. It was the first planetarium built in the Western Hemisphere.
Adler’s vision was to popularize astronomy and make astronomical concepts more easily understood, according to a 1928 report in the Chicago Tribune.
“The planetarium can accomplish much in advancing beginners and it will awaken in hundreds of visitors an interest in the heavens which will enrich their lives,” the report reads.
In recent years, the Adler Planetarium has included programming on coal, oil and natural gas, which account for about 60% of U.S. energy production.
A blog post published by the planetarium last spring urged visitors to reduce their carbon footprints.
“Simple actions can help reduce your carbon footprint—like eating less meat, having thoughtful purchasing habits, taking public transportation, and voting for legislation that supports the long-term health of the planet,” the blog post reads. “But one of the biggest things we can do to counteract climate change is provide education for future generations.”
Some dispute claims that current climate changes are primarily human-driven or represent an unprecedented crisis.
Chris Martz, a climate commentator for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, told the New York Post last year that climate policy often serves broader political agendas.
“It’s all a giant money-making scheme,” Martz said. “Politicians and bureaucrats latch on to scientific issues, whether it was the pandemic, for example, or climate, to try and get certain policies implemented. In usual cases, it’s a left-wing, authoritarian kind of control.”
In recent years, the phrase “climate cult” has been used by some U.S. officials to describe ideological approaches to energy policy.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said energy restrictions adopted in response to climate concerns have affected national competitiveness.
“To appease a climate cult, we have imposed energy policies on ourselves that are impoverishing our people, even as our competitors exploit oil and coal and natural gas and anything else – not just to power their economies, but to use as leverage against our own,” Rubio said.
Images from Adler Planetarium’s “Climate Change and Me” field trip experience. (Facebook / The Adler Planetarium)
