Turning climate data into a digital common

That hyperobject called climate

Timothy Morton describes global warming as a hyperobject: something we experience even if we cannot touch it. Starting from that idea, we wanted a data visualization experience that really hits home.

Glocal Climate Change shows how the climate has changed over the last 40 years in more than 100,000 European municipalities. Find out what climate change looks like in your hometown.

Shut up and scroll

We used scrollytelling, a data storytelling technique, to tell the climate story of every municipality in Europe, guiding readers through the meaning of each chart.

An automated narration describes each municipality's data with plain adjectives and places it within its regional and national context, connecting the hyperlocal to the global.

What is scrollytelling? Stories where text, animations, visuals and interactions unfold as readers scroll.

Why scrollytelling? It sparks curiosity and keeps attention on the information at hand, which often helps readers understand and remember it.

Mobile-first has never been so sexy

The experience had to be consistent on every device. We followed a mobile-first approach, so that everyone could access and enjoy it.

Supporting concerned citizens

From the start, we framed the project as a digital common: a tool that opens up information otherwise easily accessible only to insiders.

So we designed an algorithm that generates a custom social media thumbnail for every municipality. When a link is shared, the thumbnail shows the last 40 years of local climate change, giving citizens a personal tool to raise awareness in their own communities.

Let's open the debate

A week after publication, custom thumbnails were everywhere across Europe. Individuals and activist groups shared the 40-year temperature rise of their municipalities to show the very tangible consequences of global warming.

So, what does global warming look like in your town?

A global story to bring close to home?

Large datasets become powerful when people find themselves in them. Do you need to visualize your data too? We're here.