Striking Graphics Project Uses Colour to Visualise Climate Change

The project uses bold stripe graphics to visually represent changes in temperature, as measured globally and in specific countries, regions and cities. Starting from around 1900, each band of colour denotes the average temperature of a year (blue denotes a below average temperature, while red is above average).

Unexpectedly, across the board, the stripes shift from blue tones to vivid reds. The UK’s most recent version has been updated to include a new darker shade of red, corresponding with the last year’s data.

First conceived by British professor Ed Hawkins in 2018, the use of these ‘warming stripes’ has grown year on year – a movement that aligns with predictions in our Look Ahead 2023. Recent applications include a football kit, book covers and powerful public street art.

A collaboration with the University of Derby evolves this concept with #BiodiversityStripes to shed light on global changes in biodiversity since 1970. Using a colour scale of green through yellow to grey, it depicts the decline of more than 5,000 species, including mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles, equating to a 69% drop in global biodiversity.

These graphics are specifically designed to be as simple as possible to help make the effects of climate change more accessible and comprehensible. We explore this and other thoughtful graphic themes in our most recent Graphics & Illustration Trend Showcase report.