In support of a push for creating a ‘greener, safer, more resilient world’ in the lead up to COP26, and for this year’s World Humanitarian Day (WHD), humanitarian partners (including a wide range of UN agencies) are joining #TheHumanRace: a global challenge for climate action on Strava.
The Strava challenge is being backed by national and international NGOs, Red Cross movement organizations, academics, think-tanks and government bodies, climate activists and some of the biggest names in sport.
Hosted on Strava, #TheHumanRace will challenge millions of people around the world to run, roll, walk, swim, row, cycle or any activity of their choice for a cumulative 100 minutes between August 16-31 in solidarity with the world’s most vulnerable people.
“With over 88 million athletes in 195 countries, the Strava community has the power to unlock solutions to some of the world’s most critical problems,” said Michael Horvath, Strava CEO.
“That’s why we invite athletes everywhere to join this challenge to raise awareness of climate change and its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities.”
Participants of the challenge will call on developed countries to fulfil their 12-year-old pledge to provide US$100 billion a year for developing countries to respond to climate change and support climate adaptation.
‘On August 19, 2003, a bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, killed 22 humanitarian aid workers, including the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Five years later, the General Assembly adopted a resolution designating August 19 as World Humanitarian Day (WHD).’
The public can join #TheHumanRace by taking the Strava challenge and logging 100 minutes of total activity between August 16-31.
Strava notes that ‘the climate emergency is wreaking havoc across the world at a scale that people on the front lines and in the humanitarian community cannot manage…
‘The climate impacts being experienced today provide a glimpse of what lies ahead: prolonged droughts, extreme and intensified weather events and horrific flooding. But time is already running out for millions of people who are already losing their homes, their livelihoods and their lives.’
United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, has said “The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race that we can win.”
He calls 2021 the world’s ‘make-or-break year’ and is calling for “a major breakthrough” to slow the pace of climate change and build resilience to protect the most vulnerable from increasingly severe and frequent climate impacts.
www.strava.com/challenges/The-Human-Race
www.worldhumanitarianday.org
