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#ClimateDiary Saturday morning I was wondering whether people I know in real life even see these kinds of graphs. I decided to find out by sharing it in WhatsApp groups I am in (not all but was quite brave - included colleagues, family, etc) posting it with this message.
Entirely unscientific, badly worded etc, but I am so glad I did! I learned a number of interesting things:
1. In every group, 70-90 % of people had never seen this graph and do not normally see these graphs. 1/x
2/x #ClimateDiary I do think most people, whilst aware of #ClimateChange in general, are actually pretty oblivious to what is going on at the moment, in the #Antarctic and elsewhere.
I just did a mini-one person survey and asked my family this question: where in the world are #FlashFloods in last few days - right now?
First person didn't know of any. Still awaiting answers from rest of family.
(Places I know, maybe more: #pakistan #Spain #NewYorkState #Japan #Turkey #India #China #Vermont)
3/x #ClimateDiary
2. Quite a few people, it turns out, did not really understand the graph or did not know what to make of it. Many, in fact - once a few people admitted it, many more said so, too.
3. In one group, people started digging, and found a lot of important additional data - which is usually missing, and which I left out completely too - #Graphs alone are useful but out of context can be not just confusing but misleading
4/x #ClimateDiary
I do think it is really important for all of us think much more about #Graphs - that we find ways to first of all make sure we ourselves properly understand what we share (and are able to be cautious and critical, too), and that we find ways for making graphs comprehensible for everyone. In one group, one person shared this - great #ClimateGraphArt ! #JillPelto
5/x #ClimateDiary
4. Many people said they were grateful that I had shared this, asked to share elsewhere, and it sparked a lot of discussion.
I have recently almost stopped sharing news, trying to engage new people - from this I learned that it is good to be brave and just do it, not too much, but from time to time, always trying to reach new groups, start new conversations. Not to stop with all that
@pvonhellermannn So distressing. And you can add Vermont to your list!
Hi @pvonhellermannn,
Happy to read you've got a positive feedback from your friends and family.
Unfortunately I have made another experience: no response/ no reaction of any of my family or "friends"...just pure ignorance of all my notes I shared with them! Notes with simple facts, easy to understand and read...
it's very sad to feel this kind of ignorance about facts which really matter...
by the way, sharing other stuff, the response comes inmediately.
Have you made similar experiences?
@alex323 most of the time it is exactly like that for me. in my family especially. i did that follow up question about floods, only one sister even responded, noone else. Then someone posted birthday party pictures and lots of responses... so yes, usually very much the same. It is a #Taboo basically. That's why I try not to raise it too much, in fact had largely stopped. Just occasionally can't help myself..
In terms of rhetorical effect, there is a world of difference between telling people things or expressing opinions to them, and, as you did here, ask them a meta-question about whether they'd seen a thing, to gather information for yourself.
It's very striking to me how the discussion here, about graphs, about whether or not people talk with friends and family about climate change, completely misses how radically different what you did was than what most people trying to consciousness raise about climate change do.
@pvonhellermannn this is so interesting, it’s really clear that important news is not getting through.
I just asked my husband if he’d heard about the arctic sea ice, and he said ‘what about it?’ So there you are!
@pvonhellermannn People do have difficulties 'reading' graphs but it doesn't help if they aren't properly described.
This one lacks horizontal axis labels: I assume it's showing within year variation. Labelling the months would help. This is also not mentioned in the title/subtitle.
I also suspect that showing percent variation from the overall mean on the vertical axis would be better than raw square kilometers: the way it's presented hides the natural within year variation we'd expect to see.
@pvonhellermannn I think this is great - and also suggests to me that when it is framed as a question and as asking for input, this makes it more open and people are more likely to engage and take it in.
@pvonhellermannn This graph specifically is informative and unfortunate
@pvonhellermannn A lot of people don't understand graphs. Many avoid looking at them completely. I really like graphs, and I find it hard to imagine what they look like for someone else. I wonder if there's any advice on how to "translate" from from one way of presenting information to another?
@pvonhellermannn I think that this is the problem with a lot of #SciComm - it is made by academics who think that lay folk can absorb information in the same way.
A lot of climate communication especially has been like this over the last decade or more.
To make change happen, #SciComm needs to get out amongst the people more ...
@interacter #DontLookUp did not trigger much change, current stream of disasters neither 
#climatecrisis
@cruiser true but was it pitched right?
@interacter I would not be able to suggest any other way apart from #media intensifying the notion that this is obviously
- only the very beginning of severe impacts
- predicted to become much worse much faster than just recently expected
- demonstrably far above any models worst scenario for reasons of lacking documented knowledge on every aspect and their mutual impacts
- rendering any agreed targets completely inadequate
- actual initiatives not even meeting agreed targets
@interacter ... and even then quite a few - including in particular those with most powers - would resist to recognize anything as it is clearly discomforting to their perceptions (not considering that would delay actions increasing discomfort 
)
Which would also explain why media does not promote such recognition ... but all that is already part of #DontLookUp 
Apparently we need a #revolution, the sooner the better, to get rid of those currently preventing the needed changes 
@cruiser I'd also suggest pure social marketing (behaviour change) work that intensifies effort 'up stream' - ie at the policy level - as well as at the individual level.
That's where the real change needs to happen...
@interacter Politicians decide what marketing effort happens on political issues, inline and aligned to the interests of their donors, those wanting things to stay supporting their privileges
#revolution is IMHO the option if things should happen somewhat timely
@pvonhellermannn I’d appreciate hearing any ideas you have on improving climate graphics. thx.
@pvonhellermannn graphs with out context can be used to weaponize misinformation... but that's why we need good social discourse
@pvonhellermannn you can add #southkorea: at least 40 people died due to flash flooding earlier this month.