“I would like to see my climate stripes projected on the Colosseum”

His “global warming stripes” are already on the shirts of two English football teams, have been worn by TV personalities, scientists and activists from all over the world, but his dream is to project them on the Colosseum in Rome. Ed Hawkinsprofessor of climate science at the University of Reading, UK, created and disseminated the picture of the increase in temperatures on Earth over the past 150 years with one goal.

Which, Professor Hawkins?
“Stimulating the curiosity of those who are not interested in the climate crisis is difficult to reach a large proportion of people who could do much, both with their behavior and by lobbying politicians. So, in 2019, I thought of a symbol the as simple as possible, which could give correct information, but understandable even to those with minimal scientific knowledge”.

So behind that joyful succession of colored stripes is there an alarm?
“Yes, each bar represents the averaged world (or state) temperature over a year. For most countries or regions, the bars change from predominantly blue to predominantly red, showing the rise sudden and alarming average temperatures. When I see them, I want people to ask questions, to argue about what’s going on with global warming.”

What was the first step in spreading them?
“#ShowYourStripes was first a social media campaign, to download the graphics from the ShowYourStripes.info site and have them published. The initiative was immediately supported by the UN environmental agency and the IPCC. A week after its launch, over a million people had already downloaded the graphics from the site”.

And the most successful?
“The campaign joining one of England’s oldest and most popular football clubs, Reading Football Club. From this year, the sleeves of the home kits of Reading’s women’s and men’s teams feature “‘weather stripes’. Every Sunday, commentators focus on the colors of the armbands and fans hear about global warming and initiatives to stem the climate crisis from the sports media. The company turned to our university for advice on how to achieve carbon neutrality and among the measures undertaken, it decided to disseminate our graph. It’s a great goal, because football can reach millions of fans, people who often don’t have the opportunity to get involved in the debate on the climate crisis.”

How did the fans react?
“As we hoped. The Reading managers confirm that the fans have responded with curiosity and are increasingly interested in the initiative and the environmental emergency.”

How is the campaign continuing?
“It worries me that there is little talk about biodiversity loss, where climate change gets up to eight times more media coverage. For this reason, I support the initiative of Professor Miles Richardson of the University of Derby, who modeled on my stripes has created the biodiversity community and biodiversitystripes.info. Only by addressing both rising temperatures and the loss of wildlife will we have a chance for a future. We also work to collect data on individual regions and cities, to make the visualization more local, so that more and more people feel involved”

The ultimate goal?
“My dream is to see the stripes projected onto symbolic buildings around the world. One above all, given the impact that global warming is having on the Mediterranean, is the Colosseum”.