Data Journalism To Tell The Past And Future Of Climate Change

Climate change is the biggest story of the century. We're talking about a massive challenge that requires a total rewiring of our social, political and philosophical bases. It's a global problem that requires global solutions.

Now that COP23 is about to start in Bonn, I was curious to see the Germans' perspective on how to lead the fight against climate change. After the US withdrew from that leading position, and after the UK decided to walk alone, it seems up to Berlin (and also Beijing) to lead the world by example. And that's a problem, because while Germany is great at implementing green policies, it's pretty bad at shaking bad habits. Namely coal (which is NOT popular among the German people, by the way).

So then I stumble across this article, in CityLab, which is not one of my regular eco-news outlets. The text itself is interesting, but what I would really like to recommend here is the embedded video, produced by the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

The video is an absolutely stunning example of data journalism used to explain basic climate change. It's short but comprehensive, to the point and elegant, as it should be. And it does a perfect job at going from causes to consequences and to solutions.

The first half is a story of fossil fuel burning. The representation uses growing bars over the globe, so the world's most polluting areas seem packed with high skyscrapers. The narration also goes along, explaining how the political and economic systems of the last 250 years have brought us here. It's interesting to see how innocent Africa is in all this. Not one skyscraper there.

The second half of the movie talks about Germany, and how the country needs to take serious steps if it wants to be the leader the world needs. And one of these steps is to abandon the coal that surrounds Bonn.

Forever.