What is Show Your Stripes Day all about?

AccuWeather

A simple graphic can paint a startlingly clear image of climate change.

Transcript

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.

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