Unusual suspects - visualizing unusual relationships of complex social phenomena with climate change

Information visualization is a powerful tool to communicate complex social/political/environmental phenomena. In spite of that, the complexity of these phenomena and the data involved can result in complex visualization or simplification of the visuals and a consequent data loss. To tackle this topic, we designed an interactive visualization to facilitate the understanding and awareness of the interdependencies and consequences of a complex social/political contemporary phenomenon, such as the war ravaging Ukraine. To this end, we engaged the public through a visualization that presents the interdependencies between the Ukrainian war and climate change in terms of environment, food and raw materials produced and exported, people (refugees and displaced), and support (military, humanitarian, and economic) provided to Ukraine. We evaluated our prototype and found that our visualization increased the users awareness of war-affected aspects that directly or indirectly influence climate change, especially for food and people dimensions.