“Hockey stick” graphs have their place, but won’t move the masses to create a “climate citizenship,” says Massie. “88 Cores is a deep dive into one of the aspects of climate change that makes it so hard to grapple with, which is its immense scale. There’s something about trying to encompass the long, deep arc of climate’s time, of Earth’s time, that makes you more aware of the need to act with urgency in this moment.”

Weil, for her part, considers her work as portraiture—“a collective human selfie.” She wants people to see themselves in relationship to our imperiled, vulnerable landscape. The view matches Massie’s grand ambitions. While activists, scientists, and divestment movements all have roles to play in scaling back carbon emissions, Massie says, she wants her museum to help push climate change into Americans’ everyday conversations.

Since Massie founded the museum, she has created a 501(c)(3) and amassed a board and list of advisers. A former civil-rights lawyer, she was driven to start the museum after Hurricane Sandy catalyzed her sense of urgency around climate change. Her goal—years off—is a permanent home for the museum in New York that inspires duplicates. “We want a climate museum in every major city,” she says. But before that can happen, the museum’s “proof of concept” will need to be tested with temporary exhibitions in borrowed and public spaces.

When I met Massie in the Parsons gallery before a celebration for the opening of 88 Cores in late January, I barely recognized her. In photographs online, her brown hair is styled in a conservative bob, a cut suited to her previous life as civil-rights litigator. But the woman who greeted me had a pearlescent pixie cut—part Daenerys Targaryen, part climate crusader. I realized halfway through our conversation that her crisp, black blazer was actually part cape, with dramatic slits down the arms.

As Massie and I sat on a bench in the gallery, a steady stream of people wandered in to the free exhibition to see Weil’s work. They also explored the hall next to the gallery, where artifacts and media offer more context on ice-core science and the Arctic. “One of the things we discovered is that both among really climate-literate people and the general public there is so much hunger for this information,” said Massie, who retains a lawyer’s delivery: practiced, attuned to narrative, rapid. “The central audience is people who are concerned, lack confidence about scientific details, and could be more engaged by a social, physical, and emotional experience.”

According to 2016 data released by the Yale Program on Climate-Change Communication, most American adults believe climate change is happening, but many don’t believe it will affect them, and a majority of those surveyed never discuss it. Massie sees a museum—an institution that is trusted and confers legitimacy—as a way to open the floodgates of fear-based denial.