Longer stripes

You will be familiar with the Climate Stripes produced by Ed Hawkins from the University of Reading.

He received an RGS award last year for his work on these, and other climate advocacy.

Ed Hawkins on LinkedIn said earlier this week:

The Warming Stripes have now been extended downwards into the ocean and upwards into the stratosphere!

But why is the stratosphere cooling? 

(1) Increased levels of CO₂ enhance emission of infrared radiation, an effect that strengthens with altitude. (2) Reduced absorption of upwelling infrared radiation due to increased tropospheric absorption. 

(3) Mainly until the 1990s, decreased absorption of solar radiation due to the depletion of stratospheric ozone. This effect is strongest in the lower stratosphere.

Collaborative paper which tells the story of how the stripes were developed, and discusses their extension across the Earth system, is now available in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society:

Paper link - open access PDF: https://lnkd.in/ewB9xqgS

Co-authors include: Paul Young, Ric Williams, Samantha Burgess, Bernadette Woods Placky, Jeff Berardelli, Ellie Highwood, Doug Smith, Bill Randel, and Vassil Rousennov

The paper starts:

Earth’s climate is warming: 2024 was the warmest year on record, and the first to be more  than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (WMO, 2025). It is likely that we are now living  through the warmest period in the whole of human civilization, and climate-related risks  increase with every bit of further warming (IPCC, 2021). Scientists, policymakers, educators and campaigners need a wide variety of tools to effectively communicate this scientific  reality to broad audiences.  

And with Trump in the White House this becomes even more urgent.