The Economist article [“Japan’s cherry blossoms are emerging increasingly early”] (http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/04/daily-chart-4?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/theelephantinthebloomjapanscherryblossomsareemergingincreasinglyearly) depicts dates of cherry blossom peak blooms in Kyoto, Japan, during the past 1,200 years and their relation to climate change.
Regarding the chart of the dates from 800 A.D. to 2016 A.D., it shows us how cherry blossoms bloom earlier in recent century. The chart uses a line to depict the going-down confidence interval, which is easy to understand. However, the only thing that I would argue is that we may skip the part between 800 A.D. to 1200 A.D., so that we would have more space to extend the period of 1200A.D. to 2016 A.D. This could make it more prominent to see how much the line goes down from 1850 to 2016.
I like the design of the chart using pink flowers to represent dates of blossom. It is no doubt creative. But I notice that The Economist posted a correction on April 7, saying that the earlier version of the chart depicted cherry blossoms with six petals. But they should have been five petals. It reminds us that graphic designers should also be careful about news facts, and, botanical facts.