Data Comics for Climate Change

Abstract

While there is a well-known gap between what the general public and policymakers understand about science and what is known by experts, this gap is particularly perilous in regard to climate change. Currently, scientists inform each other via expert publications and conferences. We, as part of the public and policymakers, receive our information via the media and the web – and in our current catastrophic blending of information with misinformation, we are at risk of well-intentionally taking ineffective or even harmful actions and decisions. To close this gap, a team of experts in data visualization, narrative construction, data comics, and climate change work collaboratively to develop climate change data comics that combine compelling narratives with comprehensible data visuals that are informed and verified by the appropriate scientists. This pictorial outlines our approach and provides two examples, emphasizing the integration of storytelling, scientific explanation, and data visualization through expressive visual presentations.