Through the end of May, we’re going to donate 50% of every new member’s contribution to POW to Community Carbon Trees, a Costa Rican rainforest reforestation effort.  Community Carbon Trees was introduced to us by pro rider DCP, who has been working closely with them and offsetting his annual carbon footprint for four years.

Additionally, SPY+ will be providing a 30% discount on new eyewear for all of the new members.

Join us now HERE!

As one of its first steps, the EPA has proposed a landmark new standard for climate pollution from power plants.

Please take a minute and send your comments to the EPA in support of this regulation.  HERE

For the past three years, pro snowboarder and SPY athlete, David Carrier Porcheron (DCP), has been doing his part to fight climate change by planting trees in a deforested rainforest area in Costa Rica. To fund this effort, DCP has donated funds generated through his custom goggle line with long time sponsor, SPY.

This year, he decided to partner with Protect Our Winters (POW) – the global nonprofit organization fighting climate change on behalf of the winter sports community – to help amplify these efforts and involve others.

The funds are being invested with Community Carbon Trees, a thirteen-year-old Costa Rican reforestation project (www.communitycarbontrees-costarica.com).  Since 2009, DCP and SPY have sponsored a total 291 native trees grown and managed on cattle farms owned by Costa Ricans.  This year, 100 trees will be planted by DCP and his wife, Megan, on a trip to the deforested area this spring.

To further support this effort, POW is also donating 50% of the membership contributions they receive during Earth Week (April 23-29) to Community Carbon Trees.

“We’re honored that DCP and SPY have invited us to be part of this incredible and meaningful project,” said Chris Steinkamp, POW’s Executive Director.”  “Rainforest conservation is one of the most important things we can do to fight climate change, so we’re excited to make this an ongoing investment for POW.”

“I am pretty stoked SPY wants to be a part of this with me. And even more happy that I am able to give back to the Earth in a way like this, and hopefully I can inspire others to also get out there and do something”, said DCP.

Global forest loss contributes to between 12% and 15% of our total greenhouse gas emissions each year.  To put that in perspective, trains, planes and automobiles combined contribute to about 13.5 % of all greenhouse gas emissions.  Forests -  tropical forests in particular – are sponges for carbon dioxide.

Great looks aside, check out the list of the 50 athletes/celebs who are committed to the environment, and making a difference.  Very proud that POW Board Member, Gretchen Bleiler is #1. Go Gretchen!  HERE

The Bureau of Land Management is currently considering permitting for oil shale development is some of the most pristine areas of western Colorado, near Rifle.  For those that aren’t familiar with this process, its incredibly energy intensive – so much so that a 100,000 barrel per day shale oil operation would require all the electricity from a 1200 megawatt coal fired power plant, which generates enough electricity to power 1.2 million homes.  Despite all of the other environmental and wildlife impacts, the energy issue was enough to raise our attention on this.

This has to stop and it’s up to us to let the BLM know how we feel about this potential game changer in western Colorado.

Take a look at the video below and then take a minute to send in your comments to the BLM through this simple link: http://oilshalefacts.org/get-involved/

Global Snapshots is a series of bi-weekly essays written by POW supporters, giving their local perspective of climate change – to open the discussion, move closer as a community and take one step closer to building a movement.

So, as we move closer towards winter in the southern hemisphere, we thought we should start with Australia.  This essay was written by POW supporter, David Bain.  Please consider sending your short essay to us, and as a token of thanks, if we use it, we’ll send you a POW tee.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE SKI INDUSTRY – AN AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE

Protect Our Winters is doing great work in North America, but the relevance of this work has global implications and should have parallels in any country with a snow industry. It would be great to see POW able to expand globally or to see something similar in the southern hemisphere giving a voice to snow based industries to compliment the many not-for-profit organisations in these areas pushing for climate change action.

Now Australia is not renowned for its winters or its snow but we do have a reasonable snow industry and a unique mountain environment that is at huge risk from climate change.

Our relatively small snow industry, on a global scale, is based around a short and at times fickle snow season and really only has 5 major ski resorts, owned in one way or another by just two major power players within the Australian business world (Alan Rydge and the Packer empire). However, we have produced some world class winter athletes such as Chris Booth, Torah Bright, Anna Segal, Russ Henshaw, Nate Johnston and many others who first got a taste of snow in the Australian Alps. In addition, we are just a stone’s throw away from the amazing southern alps of New Zealand, which some people here in Australia consider to be just an extension of our available winter playground. A large part of our ski industry, particularly with our current high value currency, involves Australians travelling overseas as snow tourists and on working holidays to other skiing destinations.

The home of our snow industry is a unique and highly specialised sensitive alpine environment. So sensitive is much of our alpine environment that motorised vehicles of any kind are basically not allowed outside of the resort boundaries. This environment is unique partly as a result of the old age of the mountains and lack of mountain building, being in the middle of a continental plate. Only minor glacial activity has occurred, being last present between 10,000 and 30,000 years ago. The total area of the true alpine environment (above the tree line) is small, approximately only 770 km², which is found as a series of ‘islands’ on top of mountains within a sub-alpine ‘sea’. In the order of some 6,500 km² of alpine and sub-alpine areas annually receives some snowfall. Our endemic alpine species have largely evolved in isolation from other continents and often on isolated mountain tops only tens of kilometres apart. Species such as the Mountain Pygmy-possum (Burramys parvus) and Broad-toothed Rat (Mastacomys fuscus) and vegetation communities such as the short alpine herbfields, alpine bogs and peatlands have very narrow environmental tolerances. As a result of climate change our alpine specific species and communities are in real danger of quite literally being pushed off the top of our mountains, having nowhere to migrate to and no ability to move from or between these ‘alpine islands’.

Climate change is a global issue and Australia is a big polluter. Australia is among the top carbon polluters in the world and within the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, of which United States of America is a member), Australia is the highest per-capita emitter of carbon dioxide. This is mainly a result of our reliance on coal for electricity and high per-capita agricultural emissions.

In the high Australian Alps from 1950 to 2007 there has been an increase in winter temperatures approaching 1°C and over much the same period, 1957 to 2011 (the time that snow data has been collected), Australia has seen a slow decrease in snow depth. The mid-winter snow depths have only decreased a small amount, whereas spring snow depth has dropped by almost 40%. The seasonal variations in the decreases in snow depth have also varied in relation to altitude. These observations are beyond explanation here, suffice to say they are attributed in large measure to increases in temperature and to a smaller degree, a slight drop in precipitation, both considered a result of changing weather patterns due to climate change. These changes in snow fall also have wider economic implications for Australia as the spring snow melt is very important for the Australian hydro-electric and irrigation industries, to the extent that cloud seeding is now regularly undertaken to boost precipitation in the dam catchment areas within the Australia Alps.

Happily Australia has recently put into place a price on carbon which will come into effect in July 2012. This is a first step in encouraging the use of alternatives to heavy carbon polluting industries such as coal based electricity production. However, our current major opposition political party, bandying to the big polluters, has committed to removing this carbon ‘tax’ if they win the next election in 2013. The price on carbon is seen as very controversial and is opposed by large sectors of Australian industry, particularly the mining industry which forms a large part of our GDP and the manufacturing industry, as the high Australian dollar is already making competition in the global market difficult.

With our large land mass, relatively small population size and world leading research and development Australia is well placed to lead advancements in using renewable energy sources. However, due to the very low cost of coal and lack of pollution charges, Australians have become used to very low electricity prices which has made a shift to renewables politically difficult. In 2010 in the order of only 9% of Australia’s electricity was produced by renewable sources, of that hydro made up approximately 63%, wind 23%, bioenergy (use of biomass) 11%, photovoltaic 2% and others <1% with research ongoing into other renewable energy sources such as geothermal and solar thermal. Although not producing electricity but still saving it, solar hotwater systems account for up to 7% of clean energy production in Australia. As one of the world’s sunniest countries and one that has developed much of the current leading photovoltaic technology it seems crazy that Australia does not have a larger solar industry than it does. In a move completely at odds with the introduction of a carbon price and a push for the use of renewables, in many Australian states, subsidies that were successfully promoting the use of solar electricity in homes have recently been removed.

So like most of the world we have a long way to go with climate change and many areas including our sensitive alpine environments are in need of action now. Not only for their protection but also the protection of our unique snow industry and other industries associated with the Australian Alps. Hopefully Australia can help lead by example through its introduction of a price on carbon pollution and encourage other countries to start taking similar action on climate change.

Dr. David Bain, Australia
Concerned world citizen, ecologist, Director of Total Eco Adventures, keen snow enthusiast and supporter of POW

The tees are on sale this Fall on holdenoutwerwear.com.  Check out the release:

Portland, OR/USA – February 16th, 2012 - Holden is proud to announce our new tee shirt collaboration with Protect Our Winters (POW) to be released August 2012. Holden artist John Phemister, aka Goo, has designed a unique collection of tee shirts featuring abstract watercolor art titled “The Four Elements”. All proceeds from this collection will go towards POW’s recently launched Coal Kills Snow coalition. The project is dedicated to shutting down coal mines and spreading education about environmental destruction from mining practices and coal burning. Coal is the number one contributor to global climate change. To stop this, Holden and POW have come together to ensure there is snow to play in for our future generations to come.  Holden X Pow tee shirts will be available at holdenouterwear.com and selected shops.

“Holden is exactly the kind of partner that we love to work with. They understand that business can lead the environmental solution and we’re really excited to focus the proceeds of this partnership on an environmental issue in their backyard, that should be top of mind for all of us”, said Chris Steinkamp, Executive Director of POW.

“Holden continues to seek out ways to improve our process. Working with POW gives us a whole new way to help. While we are doing what we can to make our products better, we can also take action to raise awareness and help stop others who are not making the best choices for the earth with the help of POW”, said Holden CEO, Ben Pruess. “Chris (Steinkamp) and Jeremy (Jones, Founder of POW) have really shown such a passion and made an impact in fight for change. We wanted to support them in the ongoing efforts. At the end this is the only play round we have and we would like to pass it on.”

The POW Seven campaign launched today, giving individuals seven if the most effective steps to fight climate change. Take a look at the press release and TAKE THE PLEDGE HERE.

Pacific Palisades, CA – Feb. 22, 2012 – Protect Our Winters (POW) launched the POW Seven campaign today, to give individuals specific steps to take personal action against climate change.

The POW Seven campaign is a list of seven important ways that individuals can fight climate change. The list, compiled by some of the world’s foremost experts on climate change and sustainability, was created in response to a lack of credible, results-based action items and the need for individuals to become more directly involved in the fight against climate change. Protect Our Winters is asking the snowsports community to take the POW Seven pledge, thereby committing to do each of these seven items on a regular basis.

The seven step pledge includes items such as “Get Political” (contact Senators regularly) and provides links to each current Senator’s stance on the environment and email links. Also, “Talk to Businesses” asks people to use their purchase power and to pressure their own companies to become more sustainable.

“There is so much information out there, it’s tough to know what to do, much less know that you’re actually making a difference”, said Chris Steinkamp, POW’s Executive Director. “It’s critical that everyone has an opportunity become involved on their own terms, so we decided to consolidate the most effective actions into one short list. Those who follow through on their pledge can rest assured that they’ll be making a difference.”

The pledge resides on POW’s website: http://protectourwinters.org/get-involved and will be supported by heavy social media outreach, digital mareketing and events.

Protect Our Winters has also partnered with The North Face on this effort. At this year’s X Games in Aspen,
The North Face and POW asked attendees for their “Climate Confessions” and to take the POW Seven Pledge. Over 600 visitors to the North Face booth took the pledge. POW and The North Face have also produced several short videos to distribute throughout their respective social networks and online communities to promote the pledge.

Other marketing support includes a Facebook application to engage the social media community, athletes and others who follow POW and The North Face. The app gives the Facebook community an opportunity to take the pledge to win prizes from Protect Our Winters.

Share your #ClimateConfessions on Facebook and Twitter with @ProtectWinters and @TheNorthFace

POW Seven Trailer #1 from chris steinkamp on Vimeo.

Yes, we won!  “Company Of the Year” was awarded to POW at Outdoor Retailer this past week.  Thank you for all of your support, and for voting for us.  Here is the release:

Pacific Palisades, CA – Jan 24, 2012 - Protect Our Winters (POW) was named “Company of the Year” at the inaugural Avalaunch Winter Market Awards presented by Outdoor Retailer. The awards took place during ORWM12 in Salt Lake City last week.

“This award validates our mission and shows that the winter community supports our actions,” comments Chris Steinkamp, POW’s Executive Director. “There are a lot of great companies in snowsports and while revenue is one benchmark, it’s great to see success being redefined and equal consideration given to companies that are focused on doing good.”

For the Company of the Year award , judging criteria extends beyond the bottom line and includes philanthropic endeavors and stewardship initiatives.  Consideration is given to projecting a philosophy that is in alliance with the winter recreational community. The awards are in collaboration with Outdoor Retailer and are created to honor those who have broken new ground in the snow sports industry. Winners are selected by industry peers who voted during the Outdoor Retailer show last week. Additionally, Jeremy Jones POW Founder won Ambassador of the Year for the inaugural Avalaunch WMA’S (Winter Market Awards).

“I can’t think of a company more deserving than POW. Education and discussion are invaluable when it comes to protecting our winters and influencing how we act in every day life. We’re excited to see what mountains Jeremy Jones and crew will overcome this year and beyond,” explains Avalaunch’s Tate Chamberlain.