Climate Change

Scientist Fits 2,200-Page Climate Change Report into 19 Haikus

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January 21, 2014

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released a report on global climate change that is 2,200 pages long, and supports its points with in-depth analyses of data and scientific studies across sectors – not a quick or easy read, in other words. Even the Summary for Policymakers, aimed at a non-scientific audience, is a dense 27 pages long. While many journalists have stepped in to help demystify this vitally important work, none have done so as artistically and concisely as scientist Gregory Johnson, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) oceanographer from Seattle, WA, who was a lead author of the IPCC’s chapter on marine measurements.

During a recent weekend at home sick, Johnson began to translate the main points of the Summary for Policymakers into haiku, a centuries-old Japanese form of poetry. He explained that at first the project was simply a personal meditation, but after his daughter suggested that he paint watercolors to accompany the verses, he decided to share the completed work. It has been a runaway internet success. “I was surprised that as many people responded as positively as they did,” remarked Johnson. “It’s been tweeted a thousand times, or something.”

Each of the 17-syllable haikus represents pages of writing in the IPCC summary report, and often closer to a hundred pages of detail in the full IPCC report. Johnson chose haiku because he found that it made him “focus and distill things,” and “generally took me away from technical language.” For the past few years, Johnson has been composing his Facebook posts exclusively in haiku form.

Johnson has made the 19 images with accompany poetry available for free download online at Sightline, a Seattle environmental think tank which intends to keep the work open-source as an educational tool. Before publishing the work online, Johnson received permission from his superiors at NOAA, although it is not an official government document and was completed outside of Johnson’s paid work hours.


Author: Laura Small


View or download the haikus: