You have to see it to believe it: visual storytelling and climate comms
A critical medium in a complex, ever-changing industry.
News about climate change comes at us from a lot of directions—and at an often incessant rate.
From the latest regulations and policies, to technology, to complex scientific findings and processes, it can be difficult for anyone to fully grasp how climate change is affecting the world around us. It’s also confusing to understand the promise of many emerging technologies in the industry: on the surface, carbon removal sounds promising but how does it work? And what will its impact be?
Sometimes the most effective way to tell stories is through a visual medium. Visual storytelling is an accessible and differentiated way to communicate stories about climate change. Plus, it works. Studies have shown that the human brain can process visual information up to 60,000 times faster than text. And 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. Photos, documentaries, or interactive graphics and maps are all methods to tell a complex climate story.
At The Cooler, we’re obsessed with climate comms—and we’ve been especially moved by the work our colleagues are doing in the visual space to make the complex understandable and tangible. There are too many examples to list, so we’ve assembled some impactful examples of visual storytelling that inspire us to think about how we’re communicating about this ever-changing subject matter.
The National History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year
One of the climate change narrative’s oldest stories is that of the polar bear and melting ice caps. This year’s People’s Choice Award for The National History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year shows how dire the circumstances have become—and how literal that narrative is. This hauntingly beautiful photo shows a polar bear napping on a rapidly melting ice cap. It’s an effective advancement of a classic climate tale. It captures the feeling many have of no longer being on the brink of climate disaster, but currently experiencing it.
Climate Change in Watercolor
Artist Nicole Kelner uses watercolor paintings to explain complex issues about climate change in a manner that anyone can grasp. The whimsy of the medium is accessible to everyone, brightening our vision to real concepts and helping us truly open our eyes the more we interact with climate information visually.
“There's research around needing to see something multiple times for it to actually stick in your head,” she told The Cooler. “And the more little bits of these climate vignettes of information, if you see it multiple times, it'll stick. I think the impacts are really hard to calculate, but I hear a lot of simple anecdotes that show impact. One of my paintings is about how long it takes for a head of lettuce to decompose in a landfill, and it takes 25 years if it's not composted. And someone told me, “‘I started composting after I saw that!’”
NASA Global Temperature Timelapse
One of the most challenging aspects of communicating the climate issue is how much our planet has changed throughout history. This timelapse from NASA shows the Earth’s average surface temperature from 1880 to 2021. This is an easy-to-understand, and daunting video that confronts us with the harsh reality of just how much our planet has heated up over the last 140+ years.
New York Climate Clock
The Climate Clock in New York City is a reminder of the urgency for climate action. The eighty-foot clock is impossible to miss, and counts down the time left for action to stay under the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold, preventing the worst effects of climate change.
The New York Times Interactive Graphics
Graphics are an effective way to plot out complex scientific information in a way that’s easy to understand. That can be further enhanced by making them interactive, so users can navigate the information in a way that’s catered to their learning style. The New York Times has assembled a list of thirty graphics, some of which are interactive, that explain the causes and impacts of climate change. Their map of every county in the U.S., and their associated climate risks, is a particularly powerful tool.
Tell us: Have you seen visual storytelling in the climate space that moved you or helped you understand something better? Share it with us in the comments below.
(Water) Cooler Talk
❓ Vox is Answering Your Climate Questions
Sometimes, no matter how much information you gather, you still don’t have an answer to the question you opened up your search engine for in the first place. When it comes to climate topics, that’s more likely to happen than not. The team at Vox gets it. This week, they published the first in a series of columns dedicated to answering reader’s climate questions. No question is too big or small, they write. Submit yours here.🚘 The EPA’s Clean Car Rule
One of the things that make climate communications so frothy is the constantly evolving legislation and regulation surrounding the space. Next week, the EPA is slated to unveil a final version of regulations announced last spring. The “clean car rule” will require car manufacturers to cut their average emissions of carbon dioxide by 52% between 2027 and 2032—which could mean 2/3 of new passenger vehicles sold in 2032 will run on electricity.😂 Climate Comms(edy)
Sometimes, we all just need a quick laugh.