Show Your Stripes Day 2023: World turns blue and red

Skyscrapers, stadiums and signs in Times Square - these are just some of the places the University of Reading’s climate stripes appeared last week.

The graphics, which show the progressive heating of our planet, were shared far and wide for Show Your Stripes Day 2023 (Wednesday, 21 June).

People, businesses and organisations from all over the world were encouraged to share the stripes and start conversations about climate change.

In the UK, the stripes were beamed onto the White Cliffs of Dover and the Tate Modern chimney.

Across the pond, the University’s partners Climate Central helped to organise the illumination of monuments, buildings and bridges in the USA and Canada.

These included the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, Times Square, New York City, The Retirement Systems of Alabama Tower Complex in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, and the Dublin Link bridge in Ohio. 

Closer to home, several University of Reading buildings and local landmarks, including the Abbey Ruins, were lit up in the colours of the climate stripes. University buildings including the Minghella Studios were also lit up. Staff at the University of Reading got involved with Show Your Stripes events on campus. At Reading FC’s SCL Stadium, a group of schoolchildren from Reading and Wokingham joined forces to show their stripes. They joined a Youth Climate Summit at the Stadium, where they discussed the climate actions they would like to see their school take.

The Youth Climate Summit formed part of Reading Climate Festival, a joint initiative delivered by Reading Climate Action Network, Reading Borough Council, REDA and the University of Reading.

Show Your Stripes Day was chosen as Let’s Go Zero’s national school’s day of action. Let’s Go Zero is a national campaign that aims to make schools zero carbon by 2030. Schools up and down the UK shared the stripes as children learnt about how they can help make a difference.

Online and on TV, lots of people and organisations showed their stripes.

American meteorologists from across the States displayed the graphic on their weather shows.

On social media, stripes-themed artwork, clothing, museum exhibits and graphs were shared.

Netflix got involved, too, sharing the stripes with their two million Twitter followers.