Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, started a movement called ‘Show Your Stripes’ in 2018.
The 2024 Show Your Stripes Day fell on June 21st. This initiative aims to visualise the increasing global temperatures due to climate change and the damaging impact of human activities on the planet. Show Your Stripes Day is an opportunity to raise awareness of climate change and the rapidly changing temperature across the globe.
The Show Your Stripes initiative visualises the global temperature increase over the last 150 years, represented by a set of coloured stripes. Each stripe represents the temperatures of each year, with blue being the coldest and red being the hottest. The result is a clear revelation of how global temperatures have spiked in recent years and how these changes can be linked to human activities following the industrial revolution, such as burning fossil fuels.
Ed Hawkins started this initiative to encourage people to take action against climate change by educating themselves and others about the impact of human activities on our planet. It is an opportunity for individuals and organizations to act by sharing their stripes on social media, using the hashtag #ShowYourStripes, and raising awareness about climate change.
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing our planet today. The impact of rising temperatures can be felt worldwide, from increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters, to changes in precipitation patterns, to rising sea levels. 2023 was the hottest year on record, and 2024 has already seen five consecutive months of record heat. In order to reflect the significant heat we experienced last year, the Show Your Stripes 2023 stripe was coloured in a new shade of red.
