It was named for the northern cardinal, the state bird of Virginia, and a metaphor for information flying around the world.[1][2] Kianni was inspired by the years she spent translating English-language climate change articles into Persian for her Iranian relatives, as Iranian media barely covered the subject.[11] She says she noticed informational content about climate change is either available only in English, or at best in Chinese and Spanish, which made them inaccessible to speakers of other languages.[21]