Search online images of Climate Change and you will see an endless scroll of results that you can likely predict without even looking. Research suggests that the typical imagery we associate with Climate Change — think polluted factory air, a forest fire, the earth tinted red or a polar bear on a shrinking iceberg — has little impact on how we view the topic, and actually supports counter-productive results like psychological distancing: the act of mentally separating ourselves or creating gaps between us and that which we can perceive to be far away and therefore irrelevant or even untrue.
We distance from that which we do not understand or from problems that seem too large and complex to fix. So, when we see the image of the polar bear, most of us will not see personal relevance, or a threat, or a storyline that we need to pay attention to.
Visual communication exists to share information or ideas, yet information alone does not necessarily move us toward action. What does move us is a combination of what we learn and its ability to relate to what we believe, desire, fear or truly care about.
How then can we move past the current visual stereotypes of Climate Change to leverage visual communication in ways that fosters personal belief and responsibility?
The #ShowYourStripes project, created by Climate Science Professor Ed Hawkins, converts average annual temperature data into visually compelling graphics telling a story about temperature by converting numeric figures into an abstract colour scale. The site allows you to choose data from a myriad locations, introducing ‘place’ as a powerful storytelling tool that you pick. In Local Stripes, this information is imagined as street art, where 125 years of temperature data from that exact location is realised as a building mural, inviting the viewer to discover a deeper sense of place as they uncover the rationale for the stripes and find themselves in the centre of a localised Climate Change story.
In a similar way, Shallow End also seeks to move visual communication towards personal impact by discreetly introducing activations four ft. (1.2m) above street level in Miami, Florida. Marking this height — the predicted new sea level of the city by the year 2100 — invites passersby to consider the instability of the environment around them and imagine more tangible implications of an abstract data concept.
While both conceptual examples rely on physical installations, the intent is for the discourse around Climate Change to re-image into immersive, contextualised communications that do not simply inform, but communicate at a personal level so as to move people towards new beliefs and values. This is the power of visualising data. I could share with you a graphic that says the average person uses over 150 plastic water bottles each year, but the new drinking fountain that displays a real-time count of plastic water bottles avoided as I use it is connecting me to the same information in a more personal, resonant way.
Influencing beliefs about Climate Change can be furthered by attention to personalised, emotive experiences and aesthetics
Beyond interactive communications, belief and actions are also influenced by aesthetics. A study on graphic design and Climate Change receptiveness, conducted by Dr. Rebecca Green at UNSW Art & Design in Australia, investigated the relationship between graphic design decisions (colour, typography, composition, logo) and the perceived authority (trustworthiness) of the message. For Climate Change, fear and disgust are potentially motivating emotions that can engender trust in the message, while as Dr Green points out, “imagery that wasn’t emotive indicated that the message was from a corporate origin”, which some quickly equated with conflicting motives and therefore distrust.
In summary, influencing beliefs about Climate Change can be furthered by attention to personalised, emotive experiences and aesthetics. To borrow from author Maya Angelou’s popular quote, “People will forget what you said... but people will never forget how you made them feel.” When we consider that so much of the global response to Climate Change is based on future projections and predictions, we should consider visual communications as a force for good in its capacity to take information and express it in ways that will help people feel that they are central to the story.
Eventually, we will believe it.
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