Ed Hawkins (climatologist)

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Ed Hawkins

MBE
20151202 Ed Hawkins (scientist) at COP21 Paris.png
Hawkins speaking at COP 21 (Paris, 2015)
NationalityBritish
Known forGlobal warming data visualization
Scientific career
FieldsClimatology, data visualization
InstitutionsUniversity of Reading
Websitewww.climate-lab-book.ac.uk

Edward (Ed) Hawkins MBE[1] is a climate scientist known for his data visualization graphics portraying global warming, especially for general audiences, such as the warming stripes.[2][3][4]

Background[]

Hawkins has a PhD in astrophysics from the University of Nottingham (1999-2003), and was a NERC Advanced Research Fellow in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading (2005-2013).[5]

Climate scientist[]

One of Hawkins' early warming stripes graphics shows global warming from 1850 (left side of graphic) to 2018 (right side of graphic).[6] Being a "minimalist graphic stripped (of) unnecessary clutter",[7] warming stripes portray observed global warming with blue stripes (cooler years) progressing to predominantly red stripes (warmer years).
Climate spiral shows global warming since 1850 as an ever-widening coloured spiral

Hawkins is a professor of climate science at the University of Reading,[8] where he is Academic Lead for Public Engagement and is affiliated with the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS).[9] He is a lead for Weather Rescue and Rainfall Rescue, citizen science projects in which volunteers transcribe data from historical meteorological and rainfall records for digital analysis.[10][11]

Hawkins was a contributing author for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (2014)[12] and is a lead author for the IPCC 6th Assessment Report.[13]

On 9 May 2016, Hawkins published his climate spiral data visualization graphic,[14] which was widely reported as having gone viral.[4][15][16] The climate spiral was widely praised, Jason Samenow writing in The Washington Post that the spiral graph was "the most compelling global warming visualization ever made".[17]

On 22 May 2018, Hawkins published his warming stripes data visualization graphic,[18] which has been used by meteorologists in Climate Central's annual #MetsUnite campaign to raise public awareness of global warming during broadcasts on the summer solstice.[19] Hawkins' similar #ShowYourStripes initiative, in which the public could freely download and share graphics customized to specific countries or localities, was launched on 17 June 2019.[19] The warming stripes graphic is used in the logo of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis (2019—).[20]

Honours, awards and distinctions[]

Hawkins' climate spiral design was on the shortlist for the Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards 2016,[21] the design having been featured in the opening ceremony of the August 2016 Summer Olympics (Rio de Janeiro).[22]

Hawkins was awarded the Royal Meteorological Society’s Climate Science Communication Prize in 2017.[13]

Hawkins received the Royal Society's 2018 Kavli Medal "for significant contributions to understanding and quantifying natural climate variability and long-term climate change, and for actively communicating climate science and its various implications with broad audiences".[13]

In July 2019, Hawkins was included in the Climate Home News list of ten climate influencers.[23]

Hawkins was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours "For services to Climate Science and to Science Communication".[1]

In June 2021, Hawkins was named in The Sunday Times "Green Power List" which profiled twenty environmentalists in the UK who are "minds engaging with the world’s biggest problem".[24]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b "No. 62866". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 2019. p. N18. Archived from the original on 28 December 2019.
  2. ^ Harvey, Chelsea (28 July 2016). "Scientists have found a perfect illustration of how the climate is spiraling 'out of control'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019.
  3. ^ Kahn, Brian (25 May 2018). "This Climate Visualization Belongs in a Damn Museum". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 19 June 2019.
  4. ^ a b Staff, Science AF (25 May 2018). "This Has Got to Be One of The Most Beautiful And Powerful Climate Change Visuals We've Ever Seen". Science Alert. Archived from the original on 28 June 2019.
  5. ^ "Ed Hawkins". Archived from the original on 27 August 2019.
  6. ^ Hawkins, Ed (4 December 2018). "2018 visualisation update / Warming stripes for 1850-2018 using the WMO annual global temperature dataset". Climate Lab Book. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019. (Direct link to image).
  7. ^ Kahn, Brian (17 June 2019). "This Striking Climate Change Visualization Is Now Customizable for Any Place on Earth". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019.
  8. ^ "Professor Ed Hawkins". University of Reading. Archived from the original on 5 August 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  9. ^ "Professor Ed Hawkins, Professor, NCAS Climate". University of Reading. Archived from the original on 26 August 2019.
  10. ^ Johnson, Scott K. (22 March 2019). "You can help "rescue" weather data from the 1860s". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 9 May 2019. (re Weather Rescue)
  11. ^ Harvey, Fiona (26 March 2020). "Call for isolated Britons to help digitise historical rainfall data". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. (re Rainfall Rescue)
  12. ^ "WG1AR5_TS_FINAL / TS Technical Summary / Contributing Authors" (PDF). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  13. ^ a b c "Our changing climate: learning from the past to inform future choices / Prize lecture". London: Royal Society. 30 April 2019. Archived from the original on 14 May 2019. Hawkins described his spiral graph and warming stripes in his Kavli prize lecture (video embedded in reference).
  14. ^ Hawkins, Ed (9 May 2016). "Spiralling global temperatures". Climate Lab Book. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019.
  15. ^ Mooney, Chris (11 May 2019). "This scientist just changed how we think about climate change with one GIF". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 6 February 2019.
  16. ^ Meduna, Veronika (17 September 2018). "The climate visualisations that leave no room for doubt or denial". The Spinoff. New Zealand. Archived from the original on 17 May 2019.
  17. ^ Samenow, Jason (10 May 2016). "Unraveling spiral: The most compelling global warming visualization ever made". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 22 February 2019.
  18. ^ Hawkins, Ed (22 May 2018). "Warming stripes". Climate Lab Book. U.K. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018.
  19. ^ a b Macdonald, Ted (25 June 2019). "TV meteorologists kicked off the summer by talking about climate change / #MetsUnite and #ShowYourStripes campaign highlighted the importance of climate communication". Media Matters. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019.
  20. ^ "United States House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis / About". climatecrisis.house.gov. United States House of Representatives. 2019. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Crediting Shawna Faison and House Creative Services.
  21. ^ "Climate spirals". informationisbeautifulawards.com. KANTAR Information is Beautiful. October 2016. Archived from the original on 23 August 2019.
  22. ^ Irfan, Umair (30 May 2019). "Why this climate change data is on flip-flops, leggings, and cars / Warming stripes keep showing up on clothes and crafts". Vox. Archived from the original on 24 June 2019.
  23. ^ Sauer, Natalie (16 July 2019). "Non-Green MEPs largely ignore climate on Twitter". Climate Home News (climatechangenews.com). Archived from the original on 31 August 2019.
  24. ^ Spencer, Ben (The Sunday Times) (14 June 2021). "Daily Briefing / Green power list 2021: the UK's top 20 environmentalists". The Carbon Brief. Archived from the original on 22 June 2021.

External links[]

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