{"id":8561,"date":"2021-10-07T09:32:50","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T09:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/?p=8561"},"modified":"2021-11-18T15:11:33","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T15:11:33","slug":"show-your-stripes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2021\/10\/07\/show-your-stripes\/","title":{"rendered":"Show Your Stripes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the lead-up to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), CONNECTED speaks to Professor Ed Hawkins MBE about his pioneering research, the inspiration behind the infamous climate stripes graphic, and what urgent action we need to take to tackle climate change. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Professor Hawkins is a climate scientist in the National Centre for Atmospheric Science<\/a> at the University of Reading. His research examines how and why the world\u2019s climate has changed since the industrial revolution \u2013 and how it may change over the coming decades \u2013 focussing specifically on the interplay between natural climate variations and human-caused trends.<\/p>\n

He is also a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report<\/a>. This report directly links more recent extreme weather events to climate change, and Professor Hawkins shares his views on whether the science \u2013 and the ways we are communicating it \u2013 are convincing leaders and the public of the need for urgent action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extreme weather events seen all over the world this summer may help open people\u2019s eyes to the fact that we are already experiencing the consequences of our warming world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s imperative that we continue to communicate that these events will only become more frequent and more intense as the world continues to warm.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Professor Hawkins also leads Weather Rescue \u2013 a citizen science project involving thousands of volunteers \u2013 which is recovering millions of lost Victorian-era weather observations from handwritten archives and turning them into invaluable digital data.<\/p>\n

\u201cA novel starting point\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Searching for a way to share this climate data clearly and concisely, in 2018 he created a graphic illustrating the global average temperature for every year since 1850 in the form of a coloured band. The climate stripes<\/a> \u2013 which use shades of blue to represent cooler years and red for warmer years \u2013 show a striking trend towards hotter temperatures in recent decades.<\/p>\n

Downloaded more than a million times in its first week, Professor Hawkins\u2019 creation has since featured on the front cover of prominent newspapers and magazines, made its debut on the main stage of Reading Festival<\/a>, and adorned ties, a Tesla, a tram, and was most recently showcased as an eco-friendly clothing range at London Fashion Week<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Explaining the inspiration behind the infamous graphic, he told CONNECTED: \u201cI was asked to participate in an event at the Hay Festival and speak to an audience that probably wasn\u2019t used to seeing scientific graphs. I was looking for as simple a way as possible to communicate the fact that the world is warming up, so I designed a simple set of stripes to share that message.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I put the colours on the screen and explained what they were you could see the pennies drop,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe most important thing we can do about climate change is talk about it. The more conversations we can start, the better, and I realised this concept was a novel starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bringing a local angle to a global story has been key to ensuring the climate stripes have not faded from public consciousness \u2013 alongside a team of colleagues, Professor Hawkins compiled versions of the graphic for every country and made them available for download<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody experiences how global temperatures change directly; they experience the weather and climate where they live,\u201d he explained. \u201cProducing a graphic for every country allows people to talk about how things have changed in their own back yard.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than an abstract concept of a global temperature, the stripes relate to what they experience year-to-year.<\/p>\n

\n

“Having local versions that matter more to people has been important and a reason why the concept has spread so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ironically, Professor Hawkins believes the most important elements of his graphics are the ones that are missing \u2013 the stripes that follow the one last featured. \u201cThat is what we must always talk about,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our choices that determine what happens next; do the colours go even darker or do they stay at the levels they are now?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tackling climate change<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In the lead-up to COP26, Professor Hawkins shares the work that he intends to communicate at the summit and what he hopes it will achieve.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe are taking an interactive visual exhibit of the climate stripes to COP26 to highlight the changes that have already occurred, the risks for the future, and to prompt conversations about the choices required now.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe summit is going to be a vital platform to help accelerate actions to reduce emissions around the world. The consequences of our changing climate will continue to get worse until we reach global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Discover more about Professor Hawkins\u2019 research<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the lead-up to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), CONNECTED speaks to Professor Ed Hawkins MBE about his pioneering research, the inspiration behind the infamous climate stripes graphic, and what urgent action we need to take to tackle climate change.  Professor Hawkins is a climate scientist in the National Centre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":8563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[106,19,129,23,56],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nShow Your Stripes - Connected<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Professor Hawkins talks about his research and the climate stripes, and what action we need to take to tackle climate change.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2021\/10\/07\/show-your-stripes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Show Your Stripes - 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