A very simple graph constructed from decades of climate data and consisting of vertical bands that change from blue to red has become in a few years the symbol of the magnitude and speed of global warming. June 21 also marks the anniversary date of this “ShowYourStripes”, an invitation to share on the Web this illustration designed to raise public awareness of a crisis that is only getting worse, for lack of international ambition.
“The stripes are a clear visual symbol that everyone can understand. They provoke questions and can stimulate conversation about climate change. They can also be adapted to different contexts to highlight an important message: the world is getting warmer and we are responsible for it”, summarizes the Duty Ed Hawkins, professor of climate science at the University of Reading, England, and creator of these ” warming stripes or “global warming bands”.
These “bands”, created in 2018, are produced using climate data collected over decades (in some cases since 1850) and from several reputable scientific sources, including the United States Agency for Oceanic and Atmospheric Observation, Berkley Earth and the UK National Weather Service.
Each band represents the average temperature of a year and its color is determined according to whether the year is hotter or colder than the reference climatic average, in some cases the period from 1971 to 2000. This gives a color palette that ranges from blue, for colder than average years, to dark red, for warmer years.
It is possible to obtain and download such graphics for more than 200 countries or regions of the planet for free on the ShowYourStripes.info site. They also clearly reveal the undeniable global trend towards warming, mainly since the 1990s. This observation applies in particular to Canada as a whole, but also to various provinces, including Quebec.
Since their creation, these warming stripes, updated every year, have been shared tens of millions of times, in addition to being printed on clothing, sports uniforms, coffee mugs, show posters, and more. “It’s a very simple graphic, very evocative, with beautiful colors. It caught my attention quickly, because of this visual aspect, which summarizes in an illustration our impact on the climate of the planet, ”says Alexandre Gajevic Sayegh, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Laval University.
“These graphs reveal the extent of our influence on the climate,” he continues. Our polluting activities have changed the composition of the atmosphere. Now life on Earth is at risk. Scarlet red and very dark red show us this reality, with droughts, heat waves, floods, forest fires, rising waters. And these are all phenomena that will continue. »
Effective communication tool
Professor in the Department of Social and Public Communication at UQAM, Camille Alloing sees it as an “effective” tool for communication and awareness. “It’s an image built to speak for itself, in an autonomous way. It can be revealing, because it reflects hard facts that can be understood without a scientific background. »
According to him, this kind of image also responds to the need to create “symbols” in connection with the climate crisis, a bit like the figurehead that Greta Thunberg has become, who herself took over the graph to illustrate The big climate book. Mr. Alloing nevertheless underlines the risk that this kind of image will be taken up by climate deniers to question it, for example on social networks.
Expert in climate issues and associate professor in the Department of Management at HEC Montreal, Yves Plourde is more critical of this type of illustration. “It illustrates the phenomenon, but to what extent can it speak to people? Personally, that doesn’t mean much to me. It greatly simplifies the reality of climate change,” he argues.
He admits that this type of graph “can stimulate the desire to learn about and discuss the subject with other people”, but he adds that there is a more urgent need to make citizens aware of the link between their behaviors and global warming. This kind of awareness also involves demonstrating, through concrete examples, the positive effects of actions that people can take on a daily basis. For example, there is the “2tons” initiative, which lets you know what steps to take to reduce your carbon footprint.
“Can this visual convince someone to take action? It remains to be seen, but we must use it to go beyond awareness and really inform people about the impacts of the climate crisis, both at home and elsewhere in the world. The next lines will be red, but we have to make sure that they are as light as possible,” points out Andréanne Brazeau, climate policy analyst at Équiterre.
Specialist in climate policies, particularly in Canada, Alexandre Gajevic Sayegh concludes for his part that the graphics imagined by Ed Hawkins bear the signature of the fossil fuel industry, of its “will” to maintain our dependence on oil, coal and natural gas. “We had the chance to develop in a more sustainable way, but we didn’t. The climate will therefore change and we will pay the price. »
UN Secretary General António Guterres said last week that the response to the climate crisis was still “pitiful”, despite the announced prospect of a “catastrophe”. “Countries are far from delivering on their climate promises and commitments. I see a lack of ambition. A lack of trust. A lack of support. A lack of cooperation. And an abundance of problems of clarity and credibility, ”he said in a press briefing three months before a climate action summit to be held in New York.