Do you worry about the future of our planet? I do. Most days, I suffer from symptoms of eco-anxiety. I feel the uncontrollable urge to DO something for the planet to feel better. Yet, I am aware that recycling, composting, eating local and plant-based and biking everywhere is great, but it is not enough if I am the only one doing it. The key to solving climate change, according to United in Heart, is changing our diet to one more plant-based, reduce our carbon footprint by moving away from fossil fuels, planting trees, and communicating. If 3.5% of the world population (a mere 250 million people) could be made aware of the environmental crisis and actively fight against it, we could succeed to make the world a better place.
The communication part is hard for me. Even though I think about climate every hour of the day, I find it difficult to address the topic with people. That’s where climate scarves come in. Their colourful, irregular stripes are bound to attract people’s attention and questions. It’s then easy to casually mention that the stripes indicate the average annual temperature over the last 100 years. It ranges from navy blue for cold to burgundy for hot. The world climate is undeniably getting warmer. This may feel nice in our Canadian winter, but it causes more frequent and extreme natural disasters like droughts, wildfires, storms and floods. We have to unite and start acting now to secure a livable future for humans on Earth. Imagine having that conversation with total strangers at every street corner… If that’s what you are looking for, read on.
I first heard about climate scarves in the book How to Change Everything: A Young Human’s Guide to Protecting the Planet and Each Other by Naomy Klein and Rebecca Stefoff. Since I am a passionate knitter, I eagerly searched for patterns online. That’s where I found the Knit for Climate Action scarf pattern, which is based on the Show Your Stripes website for various cities, countries or the world. As a Canadian, I created a 7-colour pattern for Canada and knitted my first basic climate scarf.
I found that the Canadian climate stripes are quite erratic. So I went on to knit a world climate scarf, where the colours clearly go from dark blue to dark red, with a few glitches here and there. For that second scarf, I used a lacy pattern where arrows show that the temperature is rising. It is exquisitely delicate, but maybe not quite as warm.
Then, I knitted up a few matching world climate hats to go with the scarf. I will surely try my hand at beanies and stocking caps soon.
I clearly ended up with too many scarves and hats. I obviously don’t want to keep them all. After all, the third permaculture ethic states that we should return the surplus to the system. All along, I intended to give the scarves and hats to the needy. But, I got another idea. Those garments are not merely meant to keep you warm, they convey an important message. If I simply gave them away, the people who received them may not understand their meaning and use them to spread the word. These scarves and hats must be worn by people like you who care about the planet and want to talk about it.
Therefore, I decided to sell my scarves on Etsy and give the net proceeds to environmental protection organizations like Greenpeace or 350.org. I also started a Climate Scarf fundraiser directly on Greenpeace website if you don’t need shipping. In the end, these climate scarves fill many functions. They provide a hobby, warmth, colour, a message and a donation for environmental protection.
My climate knits are available in shades of blue to red for global warming, or from green to brown for the life and death of species due to temperature increase. Please order them as is or as a custom order in my Etsy store. See you there!
