Abstract
AbstractGraphical visualizations have the potential to engage diverse audiences in understanding the changes to our climate, especially when spread worldwide using both traditional and social media. The animated global temperature spiral was one of the first climate graphics to “go viral,” being viewed by millions of people online and by more than a billion people when it was used in the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics. The idea, design, and communication aspects that led to the successes of this animated graphic are discussed, highlighting the benefits to scientists of engaging actively online and openly sharing their creative ideas.
Highlights
Communicating climate change is an enormous challenge, especially as there is a need to reach broad audiences across the planet
The story highlights the power of creativity, social media, open data, sharing of ideas, and collaboration between scientists who never met in person until more than two years later
The original idea for creating a spiral graphic came when author JF showed author TF some earlier graphics produced by author EH which had used stacked horizontal lines to represent global temperatures from January to December in each year since 1850 (Hawkins 2016b)
Summary
Communicating climate change is an enormous challenge, especially as there is a need to reach broad audiences across the planet. Prominent people known to have used or shared the graphic include Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders, the artist Banksy, and senior policymakers in the United Kingdom and Australia. It was even shortlisted for a design award (Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards 2016) and translated into several different languages by the U.S Department of State (Buchanan 2016) for their online web pages. The animated climate spiral was used to emphasize how global temperatures have already increased, being viewed by more than a billion people, many of whom may not have been previously exposed to climate science so directly (Koekoek 2016). The story highlights the power of creativity, social media, open data, sharing of ideas, and collaboration between scientists who never met in person until more than two years later
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