Helsingin Sanomat: Climate Crisis Font

To make climate change and its effects easier to grasp, newspaper Helsingin Sanomat developed The Climate Crisis Font that visualises the urgency for climate action. The font’s weight varies according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center’s (NSIDC) data from 1979 to 2019 and continues with IPCC’s projection until 2050. In other words, every headline, comment or article written with the font will exemplify the real impact of climate change to the arctic sea ice extent. The OpenType variable font was designed together with TBWAHelsinki and type designers Eino Korkala and Daniel Coull. The heaviest font weight represents the minimum extent of the Arctic sea ice in the year 1979, when satellite measuring began. The lightest weight represents IPCC’s 2050 forecast, when the Arctic sea ice minimum is expected to have shrunk to only 30 % of the 1979 extent. The font is freely available for download. Helsingin Sanomat itself recently used the font in a collection of its climate change articles published during 1979–2020. The collection shows how attitudes towards climate change have changed over the years in relation to its progress and the dwindling Arctic sea ice. Helsingin Sanomat plans on using the font in their future articles covering climate crisis and they encourage anyone covering the same topic to download the font and make use of it. Climate change has been a significant topic for Helsingin Sanomat for years. In 2019, it appointed a climate correspondent to report on climate change. The same year the paper presented bespoke pens with ink made out of carbon dioxide to members of the Finnish parliament and G20 leaders to remind them of the urgency of climate action.