What is Show Your Stripes Day all about?
A simple graphic can paint a startlingly clear image of climate change.
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00:00All right, today is June 21st, it's Show Your Stripes Day.
00:04This is the sixth year and it's centered
00:06around the powerful visual image
00:08helping raise awareness about climate change.
00:11Yeah, Bernie, it sure is.
00:12And that graphic image that you're seeing on the screen
00:15called Warning Stripes was created by Professor Ed Hawkins.
00:19He joins us now from Reading, England
00:21and tell us the story behind the Warning Stripes image.
00:25What are the blue lines
00:26and then what are the red lines showing?
00:28Yeah, so the graphic represents the changes we've seen
00:31in global temperature over the last 174 years
00:36using simple colored stripes.
00:38One stripe for every year, starting in 1850 on the left
00:42and ending in 2023 on the right.
00:44And the stripes are colored by the temperature in that year.
00:47Blue colors for cold years, red colors for hotter years.
00:51And you can just very clearly see
00:52with one glance of this image,
00:54the striking rise in temperatures,
00:56especially over the last 50 years.
00:58And how has this image raised awareness
01:01and increased the understanding of our warming world?
01:05Yeah, so it's been used worldwide by TV meteorologists
01:09as well as many other people to start conversations
01:11about our warming planet.
01:13It's been shared millions of times.
01:16It's been used by fashion designers,
01:17by rock bands all over the world.
01:21It was used by Greta Thunberg on her book.
01:23It's been given in a scarf to the Pope, for example.
01:27Many people have used this graphic to raise awareness
01:29and talk about the actions we need to take
01:31to stabilize global temperatures.
01:33Well, you just mentioned the scarf.
01:34I know there's lots of different kind of wardrobe
01:36and merch out there.
01:37So what can people do today to show their stripes
01:40on this June 21st?
01:42Yeah, so you can go to www.showyourstripes.info.
01:47You can download the graphics there.
01:49You can share them online.
01:51There's graphics from many U.S. cities
01:53as well as the U.S. as a whole.
01:55And simply use those graphics to talk about the risks
01:59we face from climate change
02:00and what everyone can do in response.
02:03All right, and everyone remembers,
02:042023 was the hottest year on record.
02:08What can reverse this trend
02:09and can global climate temperatures return back to blue?
02:14So the reason the planet is warming
02:15is because we are burning fossil fuels
02:17and adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
02:20And until we stop doing that,
02:21then temperatures will continue to rise.
02:24But even when we reach global net zero emissions,
02:28global temperatures will not come down.
02:30They won't go back to being blue.
02:31We're gonna have to live in the temperature
02:33that we eventually stabilize temperatures at
02:36and live with the consequences for generations to come.
02:39Professor Ed Hawkins
02:40with the University of Reading's
02:41National Center for Atmospheric Science.
02:43Thank you again for joining us
02:45and teaching us more about showing your stripes.
02:48Thank you.