These
winter athletes have experienced first-hand the impact of climate
change, inspiring them to work hard to protect our Earth.
By Mary Kate Campbell
For Jeremy Jones, snow is not just a sign of winter. To the 38-year-old Truckee, California, native, snowfall is a symbol of his career, his passion, and his lifestyle. Jones, a 10-time Snowboarder Magazine big-mountain rider of the year and a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year nominee, worries that climate change will prevent future generations from experiencing the winter season as we know it today.
By Mary Kate Campbell
For Jeremy Jones, snow is not just a sign of winter. To the 38-year-old Truckee, California, native, snowfall is a symbol of his career, his passion, and his lifestyle. Jones, a 10-time Snowboarder Magazine big-mountain rider of the year and a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year nominee, worries that climate change will prevent future generations from experiencing the winter season as we know it today.
Jones founded Protect
Our Winters in 2007 to unite the winter sports community against climate
change through education, activism, and community projects. The idea
was that winter athletes were the best spokespeople for this topic. They
experience first-hand how climate change is impacting their sports and,
on a larger scale, affecting the Earth.
Carbon
emissions, often produced by burning fossil fuels (like gasoline, for
instance), have contributed to global warming. After seeing resorts
closed and areas that once had great jumps for snowboarding shut down
due to insufficient snowfall, Jones realized that climate change was a
crisis that needed to be addressed. "Our mountains are fine in the
immediate future," Jones says. "I will have snow to ride on, but this is
for the future generations."
Since
2010, Jones has visited Washington, D.C., three times to spark
conversation and bring awareness to Protect Our Winters' cause. Jones
says he can see the issue making progress, as more policy makers see
that climate change can impact everything from the environment to the
economy.
However, the nation's capital
is not the only place where change is taking place. Protect Our Winters
partners with The North Face and Alliance For Climate Education to visit
schools through their Hot Planet/Cool Athletes program. Protect Our
Winters educates students about the issue, using an interactive
presentation with stories from professional winter athletes to inspire
kids to make a difference. Jones says that paying attention to little
things in your day-to-day life can help the environment, too. For
example, he limits his "carbon footprint" by buying locally grown food.
And instead of using snowmobiles and helicopters to get up mountains, he
hikes for his snowboarding adventures. "This is the planet you are
inheriting" Jones says.
How climate change is affecting their lives
