Since September 2020, knitters from across these lands now called Australia have been knitting the truth of our warming climate into the vivid and hauntingly beautiful Knit for Climate Action scarves.
What started as a simple idea to creatively knit the truth of our warming climate into a scarf, has grown into a beautiful movement for change, weaving together our stories and showing our #CommonThreads to amplify calls for urgent climate action for our #CommonHome.
We have been blown away and humbled by the generous and heartfelt response of our knitters and the impact the gift of these scarves is having in helping spark deep conversations for urgent climate action.
We had the vision of gifting scarves to Australia’s Federal Parliamentarians in the hope of sending a gracious and strong message to take urgent action on climate change. This vision has now become a reality. Thanks to the amazing efforts of our Knit for Climate Action knitters we have begun the process of gifting scarves to our Federal Representatives. As of #ShowYourStripes Day, 21 June 2021, we had more than 300 scarves knitted - enough to gift one to every Federal MP and Senator. And that's just what we plan to do!
It is our hope to gift scarves to as many leaders and people of influence as possible across these lands now called Australia with our message of creation and climate justice! We plan to call on these leaders at key moments, such as #ShowYourStripes Day 21 June, to #WearTheScarf and show their support for talking action on climate change.
Imagine our Federal and State Parliamentarians, local church and Denominational Leaders and leaders from across our diverse communities wearing a climate scarf on #ShowYourStripes Day, 21 June! What a powerful vision and call for climate action that would be!
If you have finished knitting a scarf, half-finished one, or plan to knit one, please keep going! We would love you to consider who you could gift your scarf to - your church leaders, Mayor, School Principal, other key leaders in your community or even knit one for yourself to help spark conversations and action on climate change.
Would you like to spark action and conversations for climate action in your community? Register your interest to knit a scarf or call on your MP and Senators to #WearTheScarf on 21 October.
More information
What is the pattern and what data does it follow?
The scarf pattern represents the average global temperature across 104 years as based on Professor Ed Hawkins’ #ShowYourStripes graph. Our project was inspired by the Cambridge Federation of Women’s Institute’s 100 Years Climate Scarf and uses Dr Mick Pope’s temperature data from 1919 to 2023. Each temperature is assigned a different colour using a spectrum from blue to red to show the progression from cool to warm, and a stripe is knitted to correspond to each year. If you'd like more information on'What temperatures do the 17 colours actually represent?' you can find that here.
How do I learn more about Creation and Climate Justice?
Pursuing climate justice today means reclaiming our human vocation of humble care for one another and the creatures around us. You can read more about Creation and Climate Justice here and if you would like to read more about climate science, you can do that here.