#showyourstripes

From climatecentral.org

Each colored stripe represents the annual average temperature relative to a long-term average. 

Red stripes are years that were hotter than average; blue stripes are years that were cooler.

Please everyone WE need to act NOW.

Regardless of what everyone else is or isn't doing.

Professor Ed Hawkins’ data visualisation, Warming Stripes!

It started at Hay Literary Festival. Professor Ed Hawkins was trying to find a way to communicate climate change to an audience that might not be able to interpret scientific graphics or data.

Those stripes — shades of red and blue representing hot and cold temperatures — chart temperature changes from 1850 to 2018, running from left to right. They look like a bar code, albeit a vibrant one with a serious message. Hawkins, a professor of climate science at the University of Reading, says that the impact was immediately obvious.

That data visualisation was based on local temperatures for the festival’s location in rural Wales. Since the 2018 festival, Hawkins has worked on a graphic for global temperatures. Most recently, it took centre stage at a very different festival: as the backdrop for Enter Shikari’s set at Reading.

On 21 June 2019, the summer solstice, he launched a website where users can view and download climate stripes for the cities they live in, from Vienna to Verona. So far there have been more than a million downloads.

Warming Stripes from 1850-2020 for GLOBE / Europe / Asia / North America.

It’s Rare Disease Day of 2021, and the first time that I have the knowledge about my body to participate. For anyone that isn’t aware, zebra strips are the symbol for rare diseases in the States. A disease is considered rare if it affects 200,000 or fewer people in the US. There are 7,000 rare diseases that are recognized currently, and the list never stops growing. More than 25 million Americans are impacted by rare diseases.

These are my stripes. They trace my already visible veins, a few old burns, and surgery scars. I have Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder. Although once the diagnostic criteria is updated this year I’m sure that my label will be changed to a type of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. HSD/EDS are genetic connective tissue disorders. To make the long story short, the part of our body responsible for binding, supporting, protecting, insulating, storing reserve fuel, and transporting substances is flawed. That tiny flaw can cause major problems and comes along with a ton of comorbidity.