Striped is the new black: The well-known climate stripes, which depict the scale of global warming in a simple yet striking way, are now available in additional variants. Their "inventor" has expanded the famous graphic to include temperature trends across different atmospheric layers and ocean depths. Various future scenarios can now also be visualised using the stripes — though the outlook is rather grim.

The "Warming Stripes" created by British climate scientist Ed Hawkins of the University of Reading are as simple as they are ingenious. Each stripe represents a year since 1960 and displays its average temperature in shades of red and blue. Red indicates an above-average warm year, blue a particularly cold one. At a glance, it's clear that we are currently in the "reddest" phase since records began — and that urgent action is needed.

Read more at: scinexx.de