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POW helps passionate outdoor people protect the places and lifestyles they love from climate change. We are a community of athletes, scientists, creatives, and business leaders advancing non-partisan policies that protect our world today and for future generations.
Protect your Powder Stash
Wherever you shred, extreme weather and warming winters are shortening your season.
Save your Local Crag
Fossil fuel development on our public lands means access to your favorite crags is dwindling.
Keep your Runner’s High
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Sign up today and join a community of passionate outdoor people in saving the places we love from climate change.
We Embrace
Imperfect Advocacy
Instead of chasing perfection, pursue progress. The outdoor community has the passion, the information and the resources to make a difference now.
Graham Zimmerman
As one of the world's most accomplished alpinists, Graham finds himself flying and driving to the remote corners of the globe. But that doesn't stop him from advocating for carbon pricing.
Stephanie Howe
She might run for work and earn her turns, but Stephanie Howe still has a carbon footprint. That doesn't stop her from being a climate advocate.
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POW Alliances
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RESOURCES
2020 Annual Report
2020 was quite the year, eh? It was a bumpy road for us all, but there were also many wins worth celebrating along the way. Our CrushIt4Climate campaign with Strava drew in 434,800 people who crushed it for their outdoor playgrounds. When the pandemic locked us down, we held virtual events where high profile athletes and members of the outdoor members engaged with climate scientists and policymakers. And when the rubber met the road during the most contentious election in our lifetime, POW reached over 33 million potential voters with our civic engagement and GOTV messaging. We checked off some big goals in 2020.
Resources
2018 ECONOMIC REPORT
The impacts of climate change are hitting the U.S. winter sports tourism industry particularly hard.
This report examines the ways in which warming winters are impacting the economic contributions of winter snowsports tourism to U.S. national and state-level economies.
Resources
ADVOCATE MOTIVATION STUDY
In 2019, we embarked on a national consumer research project to fully understand how to increase the number and intensity of climate advocates by thoroughly understanding the motivations of outdoor enthusiasts, and how they can be convinced to do something that we now know is very hard for them to do: fully engage as advocates for policy changes that will alleviate the worst effects of climate change.
Resources
Cost of Carbon Tool
We don’t believe that having a carbon footprint should ever preclude you from becoming a climate advocate.
Instead of chasing perfection, pursue progress by offsetting the carbon footprint of your adventures and learn the value of advocating for the outdoor places and experiences that you love.
News
“Drop” Reveals The Impacts Climate Change Is Having On The Rivers Of The American West
Twenty years ago, professional fly fishing guide and POW Alliance Member Hilary Hutcheson was told that her whole world was about to change, thanks to a rapidly warming climate. Over two decades on the rivers in...
The POW Dispatch: Our take on climate news, April 9, 2021
WORDS: DONNY O'NEILL | HEADER IMAGE: ADAM CLARK Welcome to The Dispatch, Protect Our Winters' weekly wrap-up of climate news, complete with our take on each topic and how that impacts our ongoing efforts to reduce the...
Happy Tuesday everyone! Here's a few things we're stoked on this week 👇🏾
🔹 It's Earth Week! 🌎 Thanks for tagging us in all your posts showcasing how you're focusing on climate this week, keep 'em coming!
🔹 The upcoming Earth Day Climate Summit hosted by the Biden Admin, and the fact that the US and China (the planet's two largest emitters) have agreed to cooperate on tackling the climate crisis. This is what climate leadership is all about. 👏🏼
🔹 Our virtual premiere of the new @patagonia film Drop happening on Earth Day! There's still room to RSVP for the second screening kicking off at 7:45 pm MST - and make sure to stick around for the Q&A after featuring @outsidehilary, @liamogallagher, @davemccoyewa & more! Head to our link in bio to sign up now.
📸: @miahwatt
To our #OutdoorState who got out last month to #CrushIt4Climate, we salute you.🤙🏼 As Spring emerges and we continue to find ourselves outside soaking up the season, we’re inviting to you keep crushing it with us!
We added 30,000 new climate advocates in March, and we’ve got another challenge on deck to keep the momentum alive. Our next goal is to raise $30,000 in donations - one buck per person. And to kick it up a notch, if each person who crushed it last month donates just one dollar, we’ll hit our goal and receive a dollar for dollar match from an anonymous donor - doubling the effort! 🙌🏽
All of the work we do here at POW wouldn’t be possible without the support of the Outdoor State, and rest assured that your donation helps us continue to provide climate solutions, work with climate champions and continue to fight to protect our outdoor playgrounds. Head to our link in bio to donate today!
On Friday, we shared a @newsweek opinion piece by @aspensnowceo in our POW Dispatch speaking to the @aspensnowmass state of the art methane-to-electricity plant for the Elk Creek Mine. As Mike describes, "it creates as much energy annually as we use throughout our four ski resorts, including hotels and restaurants. It also generates over $100,000 each month by selling electricity and carbon credits to our local utility company. Most importantly, it eliminates the equivalent of three times the carbon pollution created by the resort each year."
In the Dispatch, we dive into how reducing greenhouse gas emissions can actually be good for business, while also ensuring ensure that economic drivers, like skiing, can continue to support local communities in the future. Head to our link in bio to read more.
As we head towards Earth Day 2021 next week, lots of the news cycle buzz has been focused on the upcoming Leaders’ Summit on Climate hosted by the United States. For this week's Dispatch, we dig into how we expect to hear the current administration reveal its plan to steeply cut its emissions by 2030, as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions for the Paris Climate Agreement. Given that it's the first time a summit of this nature has come together under US leadership in 5 years, you can say we're pretty stoked on it here at POW.
We also highlight a climate call to action in Aspen, Colorado, details surrounding how global investments could shift in the face of climate change, how mines & dams are endangering US rivers and much more. Head to our link in bio to dive into it all!
Have you RSVP'd for our virtual Earth Day premiere screening of the new @patagonia film Drop? Today on the blog, we're giving you a sneak peek as we sat down with alliance member @outsidehilary to talk about her new film, how she and @jeremyjones have connected over climate leadership and how the these early glacier melts and mega runoff events of recent years have affected the waters and fish in her home of Northwestern Montana.
Head to our link in bio to read the interview and register to attend the Earth Day event!
Ski season may be coming to a close for many, but for anyone who earns their turns Spring is prime backcountry time. For months now, much of the western United States has seen a historic number of avalanches. While they're beginning to diminish, understanding the reason behind these events is still extremely important - especially when considering how they relate to climate change.
We decided to do a little investigating with the help of some experts in the field of snow science. What we found is an answer that isn't so black and white. Check out our findings by heading to our link in bio (featuring our newly redesigned blog!) and be safe when setting out for the backcountry corn harvest this spring!
📸: All photos by @oneill_dm
What's the one key element that connects us all? Water. 💧
This Earth Day, join POW for a special world premiere screening of the new @patagonia film Drop! It follows POW Alliance Member and fly-fishing guide @outsidehilary as she traces a drop of water from its original source high in the mountains of Montana, to its final destination of the Pacific Ocean. Along the way she'll meet with new and familiar faces who live, work and play on the water, and are fighting daily to ensure it stays healthy & viable for our planet.
Head to our link in bio to RSVP & join us April 22 at 6:30 PM MST for the virtual premiere where Hilary will also be joining us to discuss the film, her life as a guide and the climate impacts she's personally seen on the rivers she calls home.
"A healthy snowpack is crucial to good ski conditions, that’s obvious, right? A deep snowpack allows us to extend our ski seasons past resort closures into the late spring and summer in good years. But it also supports our ability to dive into all the other seasonal activities we love. When the snow melts, it rushes down mountainsides and allows us to fish on the rivers, enjoy trails that aren’t dry and dusty or access forests that aren’t ravaged by wildfires."
Yesterday we shared in our weekly Dispatch that according to a study by the University of Colorado, Colorado's snowpack has declined by about 11% - while earlier winter snow runoff is three times as widespread. This not only intensifies drought conditions, but dries up water resources for western US-based populations that depend on it. If you're looking for evidence of our seasons changing, the proof is in the puddi...'er powder (or lack thereof).
Head to our link in bio to catch up on this and more climate headlines from the week.
📸: @oneill_dm
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