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Point zero zero one

East Face of Mt Feathertop, VIC. Image from the film by Stephen Curtain.
East Face of Mt Feathertop, VIC. Image from the film by Stephen Curtain.

As Tony Abbott threatens to de-list significant areas of the Tasmanian World heritage area (WHA) so the loggers can get to the old growth forests that are currently protected, it’s worth remembering that all our WH Areas are special and most of them are already under pressure from climate change.

No area has as many climate pressures as the Australian Alps. This film from Stephen Curtain offers some great telemark skiing images from the Western slopes of the Main Range in the Snowy Mountains. It also reminds us how unique and vulnerable this landscape already is. There have been several attempts to get World Heritage listing for the Australian Alps over the years. In an era of climate change and ever more demands on wild places, we need more world heritage areas, not less.

Check the film here.

Stephen says:

Point zero zero one (0.001) is the approximate percentage of the Australian continent occupied by the Australian Alps.

Bordering one Territory and two States, this biogeographical island supplies invaluable fresh water to much of south east Australia and provides outstanding natural, spiritual and cultural values.

Although the Australian Alps are recognised as a national iconic landscape by federal national park agencies and Tourism Australia in recognition of such values (see australia.com/campaigns/nationallandscapes/AustralianAlps.htm), World Heritage Listing still eludes the Australian Alps.

Point zero zero one celebrates the fleeting beauty of these Alps.

This short film was an entrant to Bristol’s 2012 Wildscreen Festival in the UK. Visit wildscreenfestival.org/

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the Exteme Ice Survey – tracking the loss of the glaciers

The following article comes from the Winter 2014 issue of Mountain Magazine. It tracks the decline of a glacier in coastal Alaska and was written by Tad Pfeffer, scientific partner of the Extreme Ice Survey.

James Balog’s photographs reveal a glacier in retreat.
James Balog’s photographs reveal a glacier in retreat.

The tremendous snowfall of the Alaskan coastal ranges funnels down to the waters of Prince William Sound, where the Columbia Glacier calves icebergs into the Valdez shipping lanes. I’ve lived at the Columbia for a few weeks at a time for nearly 10 years, and at glaciers around the world for 35. I watch, measure, photograph, and poke at ice with various tools to reveal the inner workings of this particular cog in the great environmental machine we inhabit. My work is arcane, an oddball pursuit. Or it was. Surveying ice is now mainstream. The state of the world’s climate, and its glaciers, suddenly matters.

Since 1983, the Columbia Glacier’s length has shrunk by a third, losing 12 miles of ice. Pushing icebergs into the ocean at that rate is fast work. The Columbia can move 100 feet per day. In 2006, I used time-lapse photography as an observational tool. The next summer, renowned photographer James Balog and a film crew accompanied me to Alaska to do more.

The result of our work is the Extreme Ice Survey, a collection of large-scale, time-lapse imagery from Alaska, Iceland, and Greenland. Balog’s photos get the crucial point across: These giant systems are changing, and fast. Filmmaker Jeff Orlowski captured the big moments and the frustrating hurdles, and his contribution became the film Chasing Ice. Our collective labor informs those who must act, for the benefit of us all.

And our work continues. The EIS now gathers time-lapse photography from 28 cameras stationed at 13 glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, the Nepalese Himalayas, Alaska, and the Rocky Mountains. South America and Antarctica are next. Each camera collects 8,000 frames annually, taking a photo every half-hour of daylight. The images help the public learn more about glaciers and ice sheets so that 35 years from now, the Columbia might still exist.

Visit extremeicesurvey.org for more information.

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STEPS – A Journey to the Edge of Climate Change (the whole film)

StepsFrom Ride Greener.

After storming cinemas and film festivals across Europe and North America, the first climate-friendly ski and snowboard film, STEPS, is now available online for everyone to watch. STEPS is there to show us how we can snowboard and ski in harmony with nature – without giving up any fun.

Choose how much you pay: You can watch STEPS for FREE or make a DONATION to Ride Greener. Each voluntary donation will be reasonably used and 100% invested in the Ride Greener environmental campaign.

You can watch the film here.

Donation information here

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How well has the Napthine government managed our environment?

Sealers Cove, Wilsons Prom NP
Sealers Cove, Wilsons Prom NP

The following is from the Victorian National Parks Association.

With a Victorian state election due in November this year a survey has been launched asking people what they think of the Napthine Government’s environmental policy.

If you are concerned about the way the Victorian Government has handled conservation issues please take the survey, it only takes a few minutes at most.

You can do the survey here.

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Sochi Olympians speak out on climate change

An interesting piece on the efforts of some Olympians and Paralympians who are speaking out about the need for concerted action to reduce greenhouse emissions. This comes from the Sustainable Play website and is written by Brad Rassler.

Brad notes that just 83 athletes, primarily from the U.S. and Canadian squads, and just a few from outside North America, have signed on to speak about the need for action on climate change at the Sochi Games.

Wouldn’t it be great to see some of our winter athletes raising the issue at the Games?

Sochi Olympians Speak Out On Climate Change

olympic athletesU.S. cross country skier Andy Newell will travel to Sochi, Russia in two weeks to compete in the Winter Olympics. And though his aim is clear — to stand atop the podium — he’s traveling to the Games with more than precious metal on his mind.

For the past two months, Newell, 30, has quietly appealed to his fellow Olympians to leverage the Sochi Games as an opportunity to speak to world leaders about the ravages of global climate change on the winter snowpack. The petition he’s been circulating, Olympic Athletes for Action Against Climate Change, makes the case to his fellow competitors in four paragraphs:

Winter is in jeopardy.  Inconsistent weather patterns caused by a changing climate are causing destruction around the world, and the economic impact is being felt in both large cities and small mountain communities.

    As winter Olympic athletes, our lives revolve around the winter and if climate change continues at this pace, the economies of the small towns where we live and train will be ruined, our sports will be forever changed and the winter Olympics as we know it will be a thing of the past.

    The power we have as Olympians on a global stage is immense.   Let’s use this year to make a collective statement, to send a message to the world’s leaders to recognize the impact of climate change and to take action now.

Please join us by signing this letter.

That letter, addressed to the world’s leaders from the petition’s signatories, is comprised of a simple sentence containing a powerful ask:

“…to recognize climate change by reducing emissions, embracing clean energy and preparing for a commitment to a global agreement in Paris in 2015.”

The call to action refers to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris, schedule for November 30 – December 11, 2015.

Newell has thus far been joined by 82 athletes, primarily from the U.S. and Canadian squads, and just a few from outside North America. He hopes to have 100 signatures before the Games begin in two weeks, but admits getting athletes to step up and sign has proved tougher sledding than he thought.

“It’s a tricky situation. Not only because it’s hard to get the word out there to people in different countries, but a lot of athletes are reluctant to sign things in general in an Olympic year.  They don’t want to cause a controversy.  They don’t want to use the Olympics as a platform for protest either, necessarily.”

Newell, who counts 350.org founder, author and environmental advocate Bill McKibben as one of his heroes and mentors, concedes that the life of an average Olympian, with its requisite air travel, isn’t exactly easy on the planet.

“We burn a lot of fossil fuels chasing the winter around and trying to go to these competitions.  I think a lot of us feel bad about that.  But that’s our job and our livelihood and our passion.  But at the same time, we try to use that – the professional athlete as a platform — to try to raise the awareness of people that may not understand what’s going on out in the environment.”

“I didn’t necessarily want to use the Olympics as a platform for a protest, necessarily,” Newell says. “But I wanted to at least try to get a lot of athletes on board to sign this letter and basically get it to their heads of state, to say, you know, we’re Olympic athletes and we can’t continue to support ourselves and this kind of livelihood if our winters keep disappearing, and we want you guys to recognize that there is some climate change happening.”

The U.S. cross country team’s winningest athlete and gold medal favorite, Kikkan Randall, has signed the petition.

“I grew up in a family that was very respectful of the opportunities that we had to be out in the environment, and to try to do our part, the best we could, to contribute to the health of the environment,” says Randall. “And certainly being involved in a sport that does rely on the weather and the fact that climate change could effect our sport…I think athletes, doing what we do, we have a great platform to go and encourage others…to do their part.”

Protect Our Winters (POW), a California-based non-profit whose athlete-advocates get the word out about climate change, has stepped forward to boost international attention to Newell’s petition. Chris Steinkamp, POW’s executive director, says that Sochi is an ideal backdrop for an athlete alliance to speak out about climate change.

“The Olympics is the perfect stage for something like this.  Obviously, it has a history of social issues. But I think this is the first time that climate change has come up, and it’s because obviously climate change is a hot issue right now. Sochi is one of those places where it could be a real issue in the next couple of weeks, and the conditions and the weather might be really inconsistent.  So it’s a perfect storm for this issue to be recognized.”

Or maybe an imperfect storm, climatically speaking. Steinkamp says that although climate change is well documented by the science, global leaders have not yet taken the necessary actions to curb its progress, and the time to act is now.

“Every year we all go into these climate conferences, these international global discussions about climate change with high hopes that something is going to be done, and nothing ever really does get done.  So the goal of the letter is two-fold:  To really let world leaders know that something needs to be done, but also let them know that something needs to be done in Paris in 2015.”

Whether international decision makers heed Newell’s call remains to be seen. Steinkamp views the alliance itself, the first of its kind, as a significant flag in the snow.

“The cool thing is that you’ve got these Olympians that are standing up for climate change, and with this platform that they have in Sochi, [they have] the opportunity to speak their mind. Because the only way that the world leaders are going to listen is if the population lets them know about it.”

According to CNN, over 6,000 Olympians and Paralympians will compete in Sochi. Newell has just 82 with two weeks to go.

 

The practical realties of social change suggest that as more athletes sign the petition, the safer it becomes for those sitting on the fence to participate. This author of Sustainable Play has created his own petition, encouraging the readership of this site to ask the remaining 5,900 to take an Olympic-sized stand for this Olympic-sized issue. Reassure them that climate change transcends mere politics; it’s a phenomenon without borders.

 

Click on the “petition’s petition” here:

 

http://tinyurl.com/kn395tj

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The Little Things – A new snowboard film project from Marie France Roy

The following comes from Snowboarder Magazine. There is a trend emerging of snowboarders and skiers – who are often keenly aware of how climate change is already impacting on mountain environments – taking on a more vocal attitude about the need for change. This is one more example of this.

the little thingsMarie-France Roy has earned many accolades during her snowboarding tenure for her talent when standing sideways. She has put out some of the most influential video parts of the past decade and has chops in both the backcountry and the streets.

Last season, Marie embarked on a journey to give back to the sport she loves and create a film that would share the stories of snowboarders who are committed to living in a way that positively affects the environment as much as possible. The movie is called “The Little Things” and will follow Marie and the rest of the crew this season before culminating in a release in fall 2014.

You can see the trailer for the film here.

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Protect Our Winters launches the POW Riders Alliance

Riders-Alliance-2-300x225In the US, Protect Our Winters has just launched what it is calling its ‘Riders Alliance’, a group of 53 professional snowsports athletes, committed to fighting climate change and speaking out for the environment.

It is a remarkable line up of some of the best skiers and boarders on the planet.

As they say in the release, “Climate change is affecting our lives and careers and it’s in our best interest to use our passion to mobilize the community and bring a new perspective to the policy discussion.”

It’s great to see leadership being taken by so many high profile athletes. The group includesGretchen Bleiler, Jeremy Jones, Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, and Ingrid Backstrom.

The POW Riders Alliance was developed as a central platform for athletes to speak out and create a social movement against climate change.  For example, POW recently led a group of 17 athletes to Washington, D.C. for meetings with US Senators and has reached over 20,000 young students with a message of climate action delivered by pro athletes.

POW believes that by combining the athletes’ passion with their influence, first-hand experience and immense media reach, it represents a new, powerful approach to environmental advocacy.

With the Winter Olympics just a couple of weeks away, POW and Olympic athletes from the Riders Alliance will launch an initiative to call attention to climate change on the world’s largest sports stage in Sochi, Russia in partnership with a group of graduate students from the Yale School of Forestry.

The press release is available here,  and photos of the skiers/ boarders are available here.

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Life, death, rebirth and new terrain

near Mt Wills
near Mt Wills

I have been out checking some of my special places, to see how they are faring after last summer’s Feathertop fire. The north razorback fire burnt hot up and out of the Ovens river, past Mt Smythe and into the Upper Buckland River and swinging east around the massive bulk of Hotham and towards Dinner Plain.

Many of the forests along the Sugarloaf Ridge were badly burnt and now big swathes of burnt out country have been clearfelled to protect the Great Alpine Road. I understand the need to cut out the alpine ash close to the road that had been killed in the 2013 or earlier fires, but a major over clearing has happened on the slopes of Mt St Bernard, where fire killed snowgums well back from the road had been clearfelled for no obvious reason.

IMGP6236Parts of this country have been burnt three times in a decade. Each year, the land becomes ever more of a mosaic of new burn, older burn, and pockets of old forest – alpine ash and snow gum – that have survived each onslaught. The 2013 fire has killed off forests, glades, slopes that had survived the earlier fires. The headwater country of the Ovens, Buckland, and Wongungarra were hammered hard over the past summer. To my eyes that land seems poorer, from too many burns in too few seasons.

IMGP6251Fire has always been a part of our landscape. And climate science clearly tells us that longer and harder fire seasons are our future. These last few days I have wandered through alpine ash slopes and snow gum forests that had been completely scorched. Other areas have been lightly burnt, others spared altogether. The fire burnt hot up out of the Ovens, then seemed to turn back around some of the higher ridges on the Divide slower and with less heat. Its incredible to see some areas thick with new fern and daisys, while other areas as still mostly bare soil and logs, dead trees still black, streamers of bark rattling in the breeze. In some areas wattle are shooting back, in others, the beginning of Elderberry Panax groves or thick rushes of snow gums re-shooting around the burl of parent trees. If anything, the most recent fires have increased the mosaic effect on the ground.

Below tree line, the forests on these mountains can look so similar from a distance. Up close it is a mix of montane forests merging to alpine ash, leading to snow gum, the mix of vegetation in each place all dependent on slope and aspect, altitude and soil, fire history and circumstance. These most recent fires have added to the mix of already complex ecosystems and forest types.

In my mind I can see a future of more frequent fires, longer summers, warmer winters, and the land that I know and love so well being transformed into something new and poorer. Less old growth, trees pushed beyond their limits, less diversity of living things. But in the short term – summer to summer, the annual cycle that my mind can hold and understand – I see nature adapting and filling the spaces created by each fire. There is a deep ability for tenacity and resilience, seeking balance. The great unknown we face is that we do not yet understand the point at which we will have crossed beyond the balance of resilience and natural cycle into the time when balance will be broken by a human induced future. Some days I am frightened that no one knows, or will even be able to identify, that point of no return, when resilience is surpassed by a new reality that will make our familiar lands a new country, one that is foreign and strange, beyond anything we have known before.

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coal dust killing glaciers

The West Branch of the Columbia Glacier, near Prince William Sound in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains. photo by Ethan Welty.
The West Branch of the Columbia Glacier, near Prince William Sound in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains. photo by Ethan Welty.

An interesting piece from Mountain Online. Here in Australia, the 10 year drought in the south east brought noticeable levels of dust onto the snowfields. Dust events are known to impact on snowcover in the South West of the US and have been linked to desertification, over grazing, etc. This article suggests another way human activity has been impacting on snow melt is through burning coal.

New research reveals humans halted the Little Ice Age. Is it too late to learn from our mistakes?

By Patrick Doyle

In July 1998, Thomas Painter took a break from his doctoral studies on the reflective nature of snow to climb the Maroon Bells near Aspen, Colorado. The snow was unusually filthy along his route. On a whim, he scraped the dirt off a small area with his ice axe and continued climbing. After summiting, Painter returned to the snowfield. The clean patch was now a small, extruded tower; the blackened snow rapidly melting around it. “It was sticking up about three inches—in a day,” says Painter.

Around that time, climate scientists were grappling with a conundrum tied to the end of the Little Ice Age, a period of below-average temperatures in the 16th through 19th centuries. Researchers had pegged the ice age’s demise to 1860, when glaciers in the Alps began to retreat. But that theory didn’t quite compute. Regional temperatures continued to decline for another 60 years. If anything, the glaciers should have kept growing.

Painter wondered if dirty snow could have been at play. In 1860, the Industrial Revolution’s coal-burning factories started spewing soot that covered European cities and—Painter guessed—the glaciers in the Alps. He hunted down ice cores from the Alps and found that layers of black carbon began appearing in the mid-19th century. Like the dirty snow melting on the Maroon Bells, the soot liquefied hundreds of meters of glacier in just 20 years. Painter, now an ice and snow scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, published his findings in September 2013. “I was just in the right place at the right time,” he says. “I was thinking of junk falling on snow.”

The study doesn’t just rewrite the ending of the Earth’s most recent ice age; it underlines the fact that humans caused it. Painter’s work also suggests that black carbon settling on snow runs a close second to carbon dioxide as a driver of global warming. Which means the fall of King Coal in North America is good news for snow and glaciers. Nearly half of U.S. energy came from coal in 2007. By 2012 that number had dropped to 37 percent. Expect that trend to continue, driven by increased consumption of cleaner natural gas and the Obama administration’s tighter emissions regulations for future coal plants. And while China’s coal usage has skyrocketed in recent decades, the country’s coal imports finally began to drop this year due to a slowing economy and pollution levels so high they are poisoning the population.

The switch to cleaner fuels can’t happen soon enough. But in India, a growing economy means increasing demand for coal. And more black carbon on Himalayan snow and glaciers. “What we’re seeing in the Himalaya in terms of glacier retreat is profound,” says Painter.

How it works:

Black carbon from coal-burning power plants blows into the atmosphere and settles on the mountains.

Most of that soot lands on glaciers at lower elevations, which are already susceptible to melting from summer sun.

The darkened snow melts at double the speed of clean snow, causing the glacier to retreat up the mountain.

Smaller glaciers are less able to mitigate the effects of climate change, causing a spiral of increased temperatures and less stable weather.

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DEEP: The Story of Skiing and the Future of Snow

 As our governments at state and federal level continue to ignore the reality and scale of climate change, and dismantle the limited actions we currently have in place to reduce emissions, this book seems rather timely for those of us who like our winters cold and our snow deep.

book-cover-2“This is the most important book on snow ever written. This is a wake up call. We need to accept our reality and get busy fixing climate change.” —Jeremy Jones, pro snowboarder and founder of Protect Our Winters

“The first in-depth report on how climate change is affecting the present and future of the ski industry and mountain communities, DEEP is a must-read for every passionate skier.” — John Stifter, Editor, Powder Magazine

“Skiing offers a good barometer of the trouble we’re in—and, as this book reminds us, one more good reason for wanting to face that trouble.” —Bill McKibben, author of Oil and Honey and co-founder of 350.org

In his stunning first book, veteran ski writer Porter Fox captures the 8,000-year-old sport of skiing, the miracle of snow and the shocking truth of how climate change could wipe out both in the next 75 years.

The narrative follows the unlikely rise of skiing from prehistoric Norwegian hunters to nobility in the Alps in the 1800s to present-day freeriders on the vaunted slopes of the Rocky Mountains. On his global tour of the most celebrated mountains in the Northern Hemisphere—from Washington’s Cascade Range to the European Alps—Fox talks to alpinists about the allure and mysticism of the sport and to scientists about climate change and its effect on snow—ultimately finding a story that is far larger than the demise of skiing.

For the seven million skiers in America who dedicate their winters to tracking storms and waking up at dawn to catch the first chairlift, the lifestyle change will be radical. It will likely be far worse for the rest of the world. Fox uses primary interviews and evidence, mixed with groundbreaking scientific studies, to explain exactly how and when the Great Melt will play out—and the tremendous groundswell that is rising up to stop it. DEEP provides firsthand accounts from skiers and scientists who are mapping a way to mitigate climate change, reduce human impact on our planet and repair the water cycle. As it turns out, their efforts to save snow and ice might end up saving the world.

You can buy it here.

You can find an Australian perspective on climate change and skiing here.

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Wildlife survey uncovers alpine creatures in Victoria

The following excerts come from an article on the ABC website by Greg Muller about a recent survey in north eastern Victoria. The survey was a collaboration between Parks Victoria, Museum Victoria, community members and 4WD clubs. Check here for an earlier post about this survey.

Areas explored included the Upper Buchan River and Davies Plain.

A key message is at the end of the story: climate change poses a grave threat to many alpine and sub-alpine species.

Smoky Mouse
Smoky Mouse

In a wild corner of north-east Victoria, more than 80 researchers have just spent two weeks counting and documenting rarely seen alpine wildlife.

The remoteness of the region means there is limited knowledge of the area—an issue Museum Victoria and Parks Victoria are now attempting to rectify.

‘There’s good news. We’re delighted we found alpine tree frogs because that’s one species vulnerable to a deadly fungus which has been attacking the frogs,

During the two-week bioscan, 21 species of reptiles were found, including the endangered Kosciusko Water Skink, Glossy Skink and the Mountain Skink.

Two listed species were found, the Broad Tooth Rat and the Smokey Mouse.

There were also two species of Antechinus (a small marsupial mouse indigenous to Australia) found, but at this time of year the population consisted only of females.

Roger Fenwick, the regional manager for Parks Victoria, was instrumental in organising the bioscan and worked to bring researchers, park rangers and locals together for the project.

‘No one group knows everything and it’s great to share the knowledge and get better results as land managers,’ said Mr Fenwick.

‘We invited four wheel drivers to be involved and this means the scientists can get on with doing their work, the Parks staff can concentrate on managing the program, and the four wheel drivers can get everyone around nice and safe.’

Museum Victoria’s senior curator of entomology, Dr Ken Walker documented 400 nests of native bees during the study.

‘What you find is a pile of dirt which looks like a chimney which goes down about 30 centimetres underground,’ he said.

Also at the bioscan was a member of the local indigenous community, Katherine Mullet, who was representing the Gunnai/Kurnai and Monero communities who used to occupy this area.

Ms Mullet was looking for cultural sites, including traditional walking routes, many of which are now 4WD and bushwalking tracks.

Dr Norman explained that climate change is a major threat to alpine wildlife species, which are already living at the edge of their environment.

‘The challenge worldwide with changing climate is if you are at the top of your limit or as far south as you can go, there’s nowhere else to go.’

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leadership from the front lines of climate change

While the new International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report confirmed recently that climate change is indisputable, it’s something that the winter sports community has been seeing first-hand for years.

This has seen many in the recreational skiing and boarding community get active to tackle climate change. But there are also some interesting things happening amongst professional athletes.

Jeremy Jones
Jeremy Jones

In April, 75 Olympic medalists and other winter sports athletes – including White House “Champion of Change” awardee and pro snowboarder Jeremy Jones – lobbied President Obama, urging the President to take action on climate and clean energy.

The representatives of the global snow sports community signing the letter to the President included X Games champions and World Champion snowboarders, alpine/Nordic skiers and professional climbers, including:

• Olympic gold and silver medalist Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA)
• Olympic silver medalist and four-time X Games gold medalist Gretchen Bleiler (Aspen, CO)
• 10-time Big Mountain Rider of the Year Jeremy Jones (Truckee, CA)
• Olympic silver medalist, three-time World champion, seven-time X Games champion Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton, VT)
• Two-time Olympian and six-time X Games gold medalist Nate Holland (Truckee, CA)
• Olympic gold & silver medalist, six-time X Games medalist, six-time World Cup champion Hannah Teter (Belmont, VT)
• 2010 Olympian, Nordic skier Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK)
• Five-time winner Powder Magazine’s Best Female Performer Ingrid Backstrom (Seattle, WA)
• Two-time World Freeskiing champion Chris Davenport (Aspen, CO)
• Two-time World Freeeskiing champion, Kit Deslauriers (Jackson, WY)
• 2013 World champion, X Games medalist Arielle Gold (Steamboat Springs, CO)

For a full list of signers, check here.

The letter states “Without a doubt, winter is in trouble”  “… at risk are the economies of tourist-dependent states where winter tourism generates $12.2 billion in revenue annually, supports 212,000 jobs and $7 billion in salaries.  Those are the jobs and businesses are generators of billions in federal and state income.”

Hot Planet/ Cool athletes program

Meanwhile Protect our Winters (POW) has restarted Hot Planet/ Cool athletes program, which organises Professional skiers and snowboarders to deliver presentations to North American students, encouraging them to become Climate Leaders.
Protect Our Winters re-launched their “Hot Planet/Cool Athletes” program this week to take the first hand perspective of climate change into the classroom to explain climate change from an engaging new perspective and to inspire and empower students to become involved.

Presented by The North Face, the program has been presented to more than 20,000 students at 41 schools nationwide since 2011.  The new format for 2013 continues to educate students about climate change, combining engaging action sports footage and understandable climate science with first hand athlete’s perspectives and a call to action that truly breaks through to students and gives them the tools to be part of the solution.

Pro athletes such as Gretchen Bleiler, Jeremy Jones, Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Ingrid Backstrom, Lucas Debari, Danny Davis and Angel Collinson are featured in the video project, with many others scheduled for in-person school appearances.

More info here.

Our time is now

Then there is the the #ourtimeisnow campaign, a call to action that invites students to take meaningful action on climate change.  By connecting with them in a relevant way, via their social media, POW will invite all students to use the hashtag #ourtimeisnow across their social media channels. POW can then track its use and provide meaningful climate actions directly back to each student.  As students become more involved in the campaign by using the hashtag on Twitter and Instagram, they will have opportunities to win prizes and spend time with professional athletes discussing climate change or joining POW representatives to lobby MPs in Washington.

“We’ve got to create a social movement starting with young kids who will be the most affected, and we feel that this component of the program is a critical step in making a difference.  By using social media as a backbone for it, we’re connecting with students on their terms and starting that movement with meaningful results,” said POW’s Executive Director, Chris Steinkamp.

STEPS – a journey to the edge of climate change

rid-greener-screengrab-140x130Then there is this new film from Ride Greener and Coupdoeil which considers how the snow industry can work in harmony with nature to protect the climate we rely on.

The promo says:

“The carbon-neutral approach shown in the film is a new way of thinking with the ever-looming shadow of climate change growing closer year after year. It’s not too late to prevent the oncoming consequences of fossil fuels and the damage that has already been caused”. This film tackles how an industry that revolves around predictable and consistent weather patterns can play it’s part in preventing climate change.

Details here.

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