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Photo of the day: Striped Tesla visualises global warming

Source: Twitter/Eric Holthaus
Source: Twitter/Eric Holthaus
Bridie Schmidt
6
Source: Twitter/Eric Holthaus
Source: Twitter/Eric Holthaus

You have to hand it to Tesla electric vehicle owners; they’re a devoted bunch.

Mark Hanson – known on Twitter as @NetZeroMN – has made it a point to give his Tesla EV its very own climate change makeover to start a conversation about global warming.

It’s not visions of parched earth or extreme weather events, but a simple striped gradation flickering from blues at the top into reds towards towards the bottom.

Via a sign in his car, he elaborates on what the stripes represent.

“The wrap on this car is inspired by Professor Ed Hawkin’s ‘Warming Stripes’ graphic,” Hanson explains.

Prof. Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist working at the University of Reading, is known for his website Climate Lab Book which is a blog that offers an open platform through which to discuss climate science.

It’s also a great resource for a number of visualisations in the form of stripes and spirals that very effectively communicate the earth’s gradual decline towards warmer temperatures.

“This graphic shows each year’s average global temperature, between 1850-2017, as a colour, blue for cooler than average, red for warmer. The deeper the colour, the further from the average,” Hanson continues.

The stripes have also made it into the fashion wardrobes of weather forecasters in the form of ties, necklaces and mugs, in an effort to educate viewers about global warming.

The campaign, made viral on Twitter using the hashtag #MetsUnite, shows meteorologists and weather sporting the stripes in solidarity.

“The Earth faces big challenges now & in the near future. It’s important that I be a part of the change I wish to see,” tweeted Jeff Berardelli, founder of the campaign and weather anchor at US TV station WPEC.

As for Mark Hanson, he says that his Tesla has become a great starting point for discussing climate change and electric vehicles.

On his blog, Driven to Net Zero, he says, “I have had more conversations in the last 10 days than I have in a very long time.  At one of the events, I heard a woman using the ‘warming stripes’ design to show her daughter how the earth’s temperature has been changing.”

If you’re interested in using Prof. Hawkin’s warming stripes for your own project, you can access the visualisations made from data at various locations around the globe at Climate Lab Book.

Bridie Schmidt

Bridie Schmidt is lead reporter for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She specialises in writing about new technology, and has a keen interest in the role that zero emissions transport has to play in sustainability.

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Comments

6 responses to “Photo of the day: Striped Tesla visualises global warming”

  1. john Avatar
    john

    Eventually the mainstream media may actually understand what Global Warming means to their readers or viewers.
    I do not expect the Murdoch Media to understand it especially Sky or Fox.
    They reach the majority of society so bleating in the wind of disinformation is Ed Hawkins so he drives his car into the future knowing the outcomes written into blueprint of our society.

    Look and weep for what is going to happen do your best to mitigated it if you wish.

    1. Joe Avatar
      Joe

      There was a piece in The Sydney Morning Herald where a farmer was telling about the disconnect between farmers and The National Party that supposedly represents the farmers interests. This farmer has now experienced 3 times the 1 in a 100 year drought…the 3 times being all this century! The disconnect is that the farmers are having to deal with the impacts of climate change being caused by the burning of FF. But The National Party is publicly advocating for building new Coalers and burning FF indefinitely. At the same time this is playing out Ruperts newsrags are running weekly stories in The Australian and Daily Telegraph about the drought and the impact on farmers…but of course the Rupe’s newsrags don’t mention the words…..’Climate Change’ or ‘Greenhouse Gas Emissions’.

      1. john Avatar
        john

        Yes very correct Rupert’s News Rags will not mention the unmentionable because it goes against their user base.
        They get income from telling the same sad story that it is someone else that is the cause of the cost of energy.
        Or by the way the SMH or more correctly https://www.fairfaxmedia.com.au/
        has been sold to 9 so you can expect the SMH to now toe the party line that Renewable Energy is the cause of all the increases in power prices.

        The fact that Renewable Energy is and has been the lowest when sufficient is put into the system is not explained.

        Yes at the moment RE is a small part but just remember that during the day used to be a bell curve of energy demand now it is a duck curve.
        A graph showing the Cost of Energy using the cost of buying capital and outcomes. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/87d0acca92e60e377eb3b803da754ffdcfe8230a0bb43e38ba1160e4c7ff7570.jpg

        1. Joe Avatar
          Joe

          I love reading my daily Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. Now it is set to disappear under the Channel 9 guillotine. I’ve seen the slow decline in the SMH over the years. The ‘broadsheet’ format going to ‘tabloid’ format saw a big change in what appeared in the daily newspaper….my SMH has never been the same since.

          1. James Hansen Avatar
            James Hansen

            Joe and John,
            After buying the SMH for decades, i bought my last copy last Saturday. Whatever quality was in it is now lost with the effective takeover by NINE. Sad to see it go, but I am not afraid to talk about global warming and to try to do my bit to have the community come on board to do something about it. I would buy a striped Tesla too if I could afford one to help spread the message. At this stage, I am advocating for people to put solar panels on their roof and to install LED lighting as the first steps.

          2. Joe Avatar
            Joe

            Hi James. With the steady drop off of readers of The SMH it probably wont be too far away before I buy my last copy, that being the last day that the paper is produced. I am a daily advocate for home solar. I’ve the front rooftop covered in panels….everyone sees it as they pass by!

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