How Sport Is Showing Its Stripes For Climate Change Awareness
June 21 is “Show Your Stripes” Day. From advertising boards to face masks and the white cliffs of Dover, you may have seen the warming stripes before. They are a simple but powerful visual representation of how temperatures have increased around the world since the industrial revolution.
Created by climate scientist Professor Ed Hawkins, each stripe represents one year, with colors transitioning from cool blues to warm reds to represent the increases in temperature seen throughout the past 150 years. How have sports organizations been using this impactful visual to communicate the reality of climate change?
Reading Football Club
Professor Ed Hawkins, the creator of the stripes, is a climate scientist at University of Reading in U.K. So it makes sense that Reading Football Club, in the third tier of the English football league system, led the way in 2022 having the warming stripes on their home kit sleeve.
London Marathon
As the 2024 TCS London Marathon, the warming stripes were used as a powerful visual for media, runners and spectators, to highlight how much London has warmed in the last 173 years. The stripes appeared on a short section of the route on Victoria Embankment, and formed one activation as part of the organiser’s sustainability initiatives.
Envision Racing
In early 2024, Envision Racing Formula E Team adding the warming stripes to their race car livery for the competition’s 10th season. Envision Racing said they exist “to inspire generations to tackle climate change and support the transition to e-mobility and renewable energy.” For Show Your Stripes Day, they have encouraged fans around the world to show their stripes in the race against climate change.
Running 4 Climate and Cycling 4 Climate
In Netherlands, the fifth edition of the Climate Classic, hosted by Cycling 4 Climate, and the first Klimaatmarathon, or Climate Marathon, hosted by Running 4 Climate, will take place on Show Your Stripes Day 2024.
Taking the climate stripes as their identifying mark, the organizers say the Climate Marathon, is a metaphor for the climate crisis, an enormous effort that requires patience. Climate Classic is a cycle tour from Breda to Groningen, taking place “along the future coastline of the Netherlands if sea levels continue to rise due to climate change.” The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute advise that sea levels have already risen by 20 centimetres since 1900. There is a risk of another 2.5 meters being added this century.”
