Carbon Brief: Debriefed 3
On the debriefed rota again. I was very pleased to be able to speak to IPCC graphics guru Arlene Birt for my spotlight section. We had a great conversation, only a fraction of which I could fit into the 600 word slot allocated; I learned a lot about the need for discipline with this kind of interview as I struggled to compress an hour of nuanced and thoughtful conversation down to allotted size.
We hadn't published much on CB in the preceding week so I had the chance to make a new graphic for the "Captured" section. TBH this was a lot less painful than the writing part of the assignment even with a bunch of last minute adjustments for colour blindness accessibility. I flatter myself that after 20 odd years I have a decent appreciation of what's going to cause problems for people with colour perception issues but there's no substitute checking (sim daltonism is great).
Spotlight: Creating graphics for IPCC reports
This week, Carbon Brief speaks to an expert about how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) uses visualisations to inform people about climate change.
The IPCC has been publishing authoritative summaries of the latest climate science since 1990.
To produce each set of reports, hundreds of scientists work for years to draw together information from thousands of sources.
As well as text on the latest climate science, IPCC reports also include graphics that illustrate some of the key findings.
Arlene Birt, founder of data design agency Background Stories, is a graphics officer visualising data for IPCC reports.
She told Carbon Brief that, for the last round of IPCC reports, her role was to refine existing scientific figures rather than to create visuals from scratch. She added:
“My aim was to try to make things clear to a non-specialist audience. How do we add the right labels and annotations and how do we try to make use of information-design techniques to clarify the content?”
But for the IPCC’s upcoming special report on cities, which Birt estimates will contain roughly 300 figures, her involvement started much earlier in the process.
This allowed her to work with scientists, who volunteer their time to work on IPCC reports, on communication best practices at an earlier stage.
Being involved earlier in the process led to a collaborative “co-design” process, she added:
“We’re trying to level up each time…[scientists] share figures with me through the various review steps we have in the process. Then, I try to provide a little more feedback to step up the clarity of the figures.”
Birt sees this collaborative effort as a negotiation, working out: “How do we balance the needs of science with the need for clear communication?”
A graphic illustrating generational differences in climate exposure by Birt. Credit: IPCC AR6 synthesis report figure SPM.1
While Birt is celebrated for memorable designs, such as her striking graphic tracking future climate pathways alongside human lifespans (above), she warned against the temptation to invent novel visualisations.
She noted that standard formats – such as simple, well-annotated bar or line graphs – are often more effective for broad audiences, while novelty can be a barrier to understanding, adding:
“If the audience is a group of people that already understand the content, a new form of visualisation can go a long way in bringing new understanding. But if the audience is a group who is not familiar with the content, begin[ning] new visualisation styles can just create a burden.”
Working inside a large, consensus-driven organisation such as the IPCC can be a slow, iterative challenge, she said.
Yet, Birt sees immense value in bridging the gap between rigorous scientific output and public communication, adding:
“A lot of times when I’m faced with some new visualisation to develop, the question I keep asking is: ‘Well, how does this relate to the people who are going to be viewing it?’ And I try to help put the data into context for them.
“While values can differ across regions and different communities, we’re all human and we have similar goals and ideas about life. [Keeping this in mind] puts things into context in a way that helps the seemingly abstract scientific data feel more relevant to our own life.”
Captured
Only two out of the top 100 tree species in London would be “highly suited” to future climate conditions in the city in 2090, under a future scenario of high emissions (known as SSP3). That is according to an analysis of the likely suitability of London’s trees to future climate change, commissioned by the London mayor and the Forestry Commission. More than 60% would be classed as “low suitability” and a further 10% as “vulnerable” in this future scenario, according to the analysis. The “vulnerable” category contains many native species, such as ash, wild cherry and silver birch.