Jeremy Jones is the founder and president of Protect Our Winters (POW), a climate change advocacy group made up of winter sports athletes. He caught up with environment reporter Elizabeth Stewart-Severy at an event as part of last week’s ski industry get-together “The Meeting” to talk about his work in the past decade.
Jones, who is regarded as among the top big-mountain snowboarders, said events like The Meeting are important in raising awareness of the impacts of climate change.
“What happens in Colorado will have ripple effects with the whole country and, really, in the whole world,” Jones said.
Jones acknowledged that snow sports have a large carbon footprint.
“But it’s also a gateway to get people to appreciate the outdoors,” he said. “We need to get people connecting with nature. I would not be an environmentalist if it were not for my time on a ski lift.”
Aspen native and Nordic skiing Olympian Simi Hamilton, who is also involved in Protect Our Winters, advocated for action on climate change at The Meeting alongside Jones and other winter sports athletes.
