Why I love the 'climate stripes' origins story

Plus: work as vitality + new media opportunities 🌐

WorldWise readers—

I’m an advocate for taking time away from work every so often. And I’ve been lucky enough to be able to practise this in recent years. It helps wipe the mental slate clean and refocus with new clarity.

But it’s important to get back to the work.

The norm is to see work as a necessary evil, something that gets us through the day-to-day practicalities. But once you reject that as a sole end, and occupy yourself with something that has a bigger purpose—in any way you want to define it—work then becomes a part of vitality.

Or as Khalil Gibran puts it in The Prophet:

You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.

Read the whole poem. Gibran’s words may just open your mind to a more meaningful relationship with work.

Anita

---

MEDIA EDITION | opportunities and support to grow in communication

INSIDER | views & experience

Catch the eye first.

I recently came across the origins story of the ‘climate stripes’—a now popular visualisation made up of vertical lines ranging from blue to red, which represent temperature changes measured in each country, region or city over the past 100 years.

As Bianca Hillier tells the story, it began when climate physics professor Ellie Highwood was trying to come up with a gift for a colleague expecting a baby back in 2017.

A keen crocheter, she ended up making a “global warming blanket” for the baby. Each crocheted row stood for a year’s global temperature from 1916 to 2016. Highwood explains the concept:

“I did 100 years so, up until the baby was born. And I started with dark blues and purples to represent colder-than-average temperatures … over time, transitioning through some of the greens and yellows into oranges, and then, reds and [a] deep red, burgundy kind of color.”

I loved this story for several reasons.

Because of how a humble personal craft creation went viral and found its way into prominent book covers, political advocacy, even couture fashion and formula racing, all raising awareness about climate change.

Because it got there with the help of someone else who saw the value in it. Shortly after the blanket was made another one of Highwood’s colleagues, scientist Ed Hawkins, created a data visualisation site in its image. That’s when the stripes went mainstream.

Because as Highwood tells the story, she stays true to the scientific spirit (if not always the practice) of citing prior work and sources of inspiration. In this case that’s fellow knitter Joan Sheldon, who shows up more prominently in this piece by Mike Munsell for Canary Media which probes the origins story in a bit more detail.

Because this is ultimately an example of how artistic work—made well—can be a gateway to access a shared reality or experience in ways that communicating facts cannot. Other powerful creations along those lines, which I’ve covered previously and again focused on climate change, were made with photography and sound.

Because in the case of climate stripes you can also make your own version: anyone can use Hawkins’ data visualisation site to create a bespoke stripe pattern that corresponds to their location. The banner image you see above corresponds to data for the island of Cyprus, where this post was written during an unusually balmy winter.

But the local is also global—as Hillier writes:

“No matter which location’s data you look at, the general result is the same: As the years go by, the blues fade away, and orange, red and eventually, deep burgundy lines appear.”

---

---

OPPORTUNITIES | working with the media

grants+funding

• ASIA | Journalists from or based in Thailand, Indonesia, or the Philippines: the International Center for Journalists is offering up to US$5,000 for investigative stories, including podcasts or video investigations, on Southeast Asia—closing 28 January.

• LAC | Journalists with at least four years of professional experience, who are based in Latin America and the Caribbean, can apply for the CONNECTAS Fellowship, which offers editorial support and up to US$3,000 to high-impact investigative journalism that helps to expose abuses of power—closing 28 January. (Spanish)

• GLOBAL | Journalists who are US-based or whose stories have a US angle can apply for grants from The Fund for Investigative Journalism, which is offering up to US$10,000 to support investigative projects that break new ground and expose wrongdoing, plus expedited grants for urgent stories and follow-up grants for timely stories after initial investigations—closing 29 January.

• MENA | Mophradat is offering grants to support emerging writers from the Arab world who are working in contemporary fiction, nonfiction or poetry—closing 1 February.

fellowships+scholarships

• GLOBAL | Journalists working in news organisations anywhere in the world, who have some experience working on the use of AI technologies, can apply for the JournalismAI Fellowship—closing 26 January.

• ASIA | The Reporters’ Collective in India is inviting journalists with at least two years of experience to apply for its inaugural fellowship to fund the production of investigative work in English—closing 31 January.

• GLOBAL | Rest of World is looking for three reporting fellows to work on ambitious features about how technology is transforming religious practices in Latin America, Africa, Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe—closing 31 January.

• ASIA | Journalists from and based in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand or Vietnam can apply for a fellowship offered by Internews' Earth Journalism Network, which offers training and grants for reporting on infrastructural development in the lower Mekong and its impacts on the environment and human rights—closing 31 January.

• GLOBAL | Experienced journalists who are interested in advancing research on the media, public policy and political affairs can apply for a fellowship to spend a semester at Harvard University working on a project with a tangible output—closing 31 January.

• GLOBAL | The Ferriss – UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship is offering ten US$10,000 reporting grants to journalists who report in-depth tories on the science, policy, business and culture of this new era of psychedelics—closing 31 January.

training+events

• GLOBAL | Reporters, editors, news directors and producers can apply to take part in the Beat Academy, an eight-month webinar series offered by Poynter to strengthen journalists’ skills to tackle emerging topics such as immigration, climate change response, or transgender medical care. Attendees will be able to apply for reporting grants of up to US$10,000—closing 1 February.

• GLOBAL | Journalists interested in investigative reporting can attend this online session on how to hone investigative skills around day-to-day reporting—on 1 February.

• LAC | The UAM/El País School of Journalism is organizing a workshop on "How to become a freelance journalist”, taking place on February 8 and 9. The cost is US$149—closing 1 February. (Spanish)

• LAC | The University of Guadalajara's Centro de Formación en Periodismo Digital is offering a course on public communication strategies in times of crisis, taking place from February 12 to March 16. The cost is US$130—closing 2 February. (Spanish)

awards+competitions

• GLOBAL | Journalists and editors who cover human rights stories can apply for The Amnesty International Media Awards—closing 29 January.

• AFRICA | The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Media Awards are open for submissions from journalists who covered regional integration projects in COMESA countries on issues such as trade, infrastructure investments or gender—closing 31 January.

• AFRICA | Up-and-coming journalists in Africa who strive to strengthen people's voices and illuminate transformational change taking place on the continent can apply for the 2024 Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling—closing 31 January.

• GLOBAL | The Media School at Bournemouth University is accepting entries for its New Media Writing Prize, looking for innovative and interactive storytelling in various formats including documentary or transmedia work using words, images, film or animation with audience interaction—closing 1 February.

• GLOBAL | Science journalists based anywhere in the world can apply for the Science in Society Journalism Awards by the US National Association of Science Writers, which recognises investigative or interpretive reporting about the sciences and their impact on modern society—closing 1 February.

• GLOBAL | Young journalists whose stories appear in US media can apply for the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, which recognise local, national and international reporting—closing 1 February.

pitches+positions

• GLOBAL | Enrique Anarte wrote on X that Openly is expanding its global coverage, and is looking to work with local freelancers on video stories on LGBTQ+ topics in Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Indonesia—pitch him.

• GLOBAL | Marcie Blanco wrote on X that social change-focused publication The Stanford Social Innovation Review is looking for reported articles for their ‘What’s Next’ series—read the submission guidelines and pitch.

• MENA | The Associated Press is looking for a Middle East news director to direct its coverage of the Middle East and oversee a team of photo, text and video journalists—closing 5 February.

• GLOBAL | Cactus Communications is recruiting freelance academic editors, including copyeditors, to work on academic manuscripts in their fields of expertise and help researchers communicate more effectively—closing 6 February.

resources+tools

• How to write a good story in 800 words or less - Poynter

• What editors want (beyond a good story) - International Journalists' Network

• A book publishing primer for science writers - The Open Notebook

• Journalists, we need to rethink how we fight burnout - Poynter

• Don’t get widetracked: Tips for planning and staying focused on an investigation – Global Investigative Journalism Network

---

HIGHLIGHT | community space

The World Federation of Science Journalists is working with the World Health Organization on a field guide for Science and Knowledge Translation. The idea is to help journalists, editors, news organisation directors and social media influencers to report and translate science in health emergencies. If you’re a member of the Federation or an association with membership, you can have your say in this questionnaire—deadline 10 February.

---

VIEW | insight & global news

ICYMI—the first VIEW post of 2024 reflects on two sides of the state of the world today, through a comment on efforts to meet the SDGs and themes to watch as the new year unfolds.

A blind spot in the push to meet development goals

---

HOUSEKEEPING NOTE

Signing up to WorldWise grants access to both VIEW and MEDIA editions automatically. You can also subscribe or unsubscribe to one specific section—there’s a handy how-to here.

Learn more about the newsletter, who I am and why I publish this in the About page.

WorldWise is free to read. If you wish to support my time and energy for the project through a subscription, you can do that here.

---

PS. |

---

---

Fineprint.

🕸 FOLLOW | Stay up to date on LinkedIn and X/Twitter.

🔗 CONNECT | Get in touch to sponsor or commission content.

🤍 SUPPORT | Share the newsletter or become a paid subscriber.

✔️ MANAGE | Your subscription includes two editions—

VIEW: insight and news for a rounded take on global affairs

MEDIA: opportunities and support to grow in communication

You can stop receiving one or both at any time by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of an email.