Proximity Spain Launches the ‘Ugly Data Sweater'

The fires in Spain devastated over 300,000 hectares in 2022, making this the year when the largest area of forest of the past 25 years went up in flames. To prevent the 2022 forest fire data from being forgotten, and remind us that we need to take care of forests all year round, Proximity has taken advantage of the Christmas season - and more specifically, a global icon of this time of year, i.e. the typical Christmas jumper - to launch the “Ugly Data Sweater” initiative, along with the NGO Reforesta. A Christmas jumper with a message, where the snowflakes are on fire, the fir trees have been burned to ashes and the reindeer are fleeing from the flames. Nothing is random in this sweater. Each of the decorative elements that appear in the jumper has been designed based on the data surrounding the forest fires that occurred in Spain over 2022:  

• The relief of the mountains represents a graph showing the evolution of forest fires in Spain over the past decade. 
• Nine matchsticks mark the nine out of 10 fires that are estimated to be caused by humans. 
• 10 fir trees, five of which have been burned, reflect the fact that provinces like Zamora or León have seen half of their woodlands go up in flames. 
• Several decorative borders comprising 463 dots mark the number of fires of more than 30 hectares that occurred in the country according to the European Forest Fire Information System, of which 55 were Large Forest Fires. 
• And a reindeer vanishes from the sweater, to remind us of the thousands of animal lives that were lost, about which no data even exist. 

All of this data can be read by scanning the sweater directly using the Instagram filter “Ugly Data Sweater”. 

According to Susana Pérez and Ramón Caba, executive creative directors of Proximity, “By converting catastrophic data into something as mundane as a Christmas jumper, we humanise them and bring them closer to people, in order to raise awareness of the importance of taking care of forests.” They also add that “This initiative takes advantage of Christmas as a season when we take stock of the year and express our wishes for good things in the upcoming year. Which is why we wanted to use a seasonal icon - the typical Christmas sweater - to raise awareness about the problem, but also to express one of our hopes for next year: that we can prevent data like these from being repeated.” 

The jumper is a limited edition sweater that can be purchased here for 35 Euros. All of the profits will be sent to Reforesta, a not-for-profit organisation created in 1991 and declared of public interest which works towards the conservation of nature and the recovery of our forests.

As Miguel Ángel Ortega, the founder and leader of Reforesta, explains, “with these 35 Euros, you aren’t just buying a sweater: you are helping this NGO work for more biodiverse woodlands and fight against desertification, a problem that arises when the soil of the planet’s arid zones is lost or deteriorates, contributing decisively to forest fires. 74% of Spain lies within these arid zones, hence the urgency of working to recover the health of our forests.”