‘We are here’: New climate design shows us our future in red-hot stripes

Last year, climate scientist Ed Hawkins devised a stripe pattern to show the warming of our planet (a pattern that eventually found its way onto leggings and flip-flops). The bands of color represent average global temperatures for each year between 1850 and 2017, going from light and dark blues (cooler years) to pinks and reds (hotter years). Well folks, German engineer Alexander Radtke just took this concept and shot it into the future:

In Radtke’s version, the stripes go all the way to 2200, under different possible warming scenarios. A bubble labeled “WE ARE HERE” shows us on the brink of either a disturbingly red future, or — assuming urgent action is taken to limit CO2 emissions — one where we might have a prayer. Radtke told Earther that he was inspired to create the design after seeing students in Germany rep the original climate stripes at last week’s global Youth Climate Strike.

Radtke’s version certainly does convey the significance of our moment in time — we can still choose which future we want. Will this design also infiltrate fashion and protest gear? Grist reporter Eric Holthaus, for his part, can imagine the design making a splash as a garment. He proposes “CLIMATE LEGGINGS BUT ONE LEG IS SURVIVABLE AND ONE LEG IS DEATHHHHH.” (Then, of course, the crotch would be “we are here …”)

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline ‘We are here’: New climate design shows us our future in red-hot stripes on Mar 21, 2019.