Global landmarks lit up with climate stripes

27 June 2024

Reading’s famous climate stripes graphic was again shared around the world on Show Your Stripes Day (21 June 2024).

Global landmarks, including the Tower of London, had the stripes projected onto them to raise awareness of rising temperatures and the need for climate action.

Jen Stone, Sustainability Manager at Historic Royal Palaces, the charity that cares for the Tower of London, said: “University of Reading’s climate stripes graphic is a profound and yet simple way to show the world how the planet is warming. We hope the illuminations caught people’s attention and helped to start important conversations about the climate crisis.”

UK and international landmarks that displayed the stripes included:

Lord’s Cricket Ground.
Hay Castle.
BT Tower in London.
The Liver buildings and Museum of Liverpool, in Liverpool.
An Ecotricity wind turbine in Stroud, which was illuminated with an animated sequence featuring the stripes and climate action messages.
Times Square, New York City.
Famous buildings and structures across the USA, including Dublin Link Bridge, Columbus; The Six Light Bridges, Houston; Baltimore City Hall; the PECO building, Philadelphia. See the full list, courtesy of Climate Central.
Iconic bridges in Brisbane, Australia – all of which were illuminated using Queensland’s climate stripes

Other stripes activity included:

International media coverage, including on the BBC news website and Sky News.

International media coverage, including on the BBC news website and Sky News.
Social media posts by people and organisations around the world, using the #ShowYourStripes hashtag.
In the trailer for the new animated film Ozi, Voice of the Forest, and on the film poster.
Outside the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig, Germany, before the EURO 2024 football match between France and the Netherlands.
NASA launching its Climate Legacies initiative, inviting users to create climate stripes timelines to see how different generations experience climate change.
The Running Out of Time climate relay passing through Reading.
2,500 people cycled wearing climate stripes jerseys in the Netherlands.
On a Berlin tram.
A new range of climate stripes scarves launched by London designer TAMMAM.

'Turn conversations into action'

Professor Ed Hawkins, the Reading climate scientist who created the climate stripes, also told the story of how his climate stripes visualisation went from a local creation to a global icon at an in conversation event at Reading Concert Hall on the evening of Show Your Stripes Day.

Ed said: “We have started to so many climate conversations using our climate stripes, but now we need to turn these climate conversations into climate action.

“2023 was the hottest year on record, and 2024 has seen another five consecutive months of record heat. A warmer world will mean more extreme weather, more devastation and more suffering.

“Show your stripes, start conversations about our warming world, and take climate action. Ask your politicians to push for net-zero emissions, live more sustainably and encourage others to act. The faster we act, the less bad the climate consequences will be.”

Our showyourstripes.info website, which allows visitors to download climate stripes for countries, states and cities, was visited around 65,000 times, with 16,000 downloads.

Our Partnering for the Planet website, which shares and explains action the University is taking on climate change, was also visited thousands of times.

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