When I started snowboarding on the weekends in New York, I would spend the evenings after work watching clips and videos of professional snowboarders. It was a way to keep me inspired after a day of falling on the slopes while I was learning!

I first saw Jeremy Jones in Red Bull’s The Art of Flight. It was one of the first snowboarding movies I watched, and re-watched. The lives of big mountain freeriders - the athletes who snowboard some of the world's tallest and most challenging peaks - are defined by freedom and exploration. In many more films and interviews, Jones has described how this outdoor paradise is changing due to a warming climate. Jones is the founder of Protect Our Winters, a non-profit dedicated to helping passionate outdoor people protect the places and lifestyles they love from climate change (from the POW website). This September Jones premiered his latest film, Purple Mountains, a film about one man’s journey to find common ground in the mountains - one voter at a time (from the Purple Mountains website).

“Climate change impacts everyone. The environment wasn’t always a decisive issue.” We all want clean air, clean water and a sustainable future for kids. How do we get there?”

This question in the opening scene sets the tone for the film as Jones and his team meets with climate skeptics and deniers to understand their perspective. The climate deniers interviewed felt they had an evidence-based perspective. But their tactic was to pull one fact from a whole body of research and build a case for bias and political motivation. It’s well known that fossil fuel companies purposely fund misinformation. It’s in their advantage to get voters to reject “big” government as that would lead to higher corporate taxes or more regulation. However is it possible to find a middle ground where one can be pro-climate regardless of political party?

“We have half the country poking holes in the science but we need 100 percent of people focusing on solutions.”

One of the interviews mentioned that focusing on solutions would be a difficult hurdle. Right now in the U.S. there are no conservative candidates that are pro-climate. So even if voters wanted to vote for change, there isn’t a clear representative or platform to make it happen. This point stood out to me, especially viewing this film during this year’s contentious presidential election cycle. The interviews came from a wide range of professions such as hunter, geologist, miner, journalist, professor etc. Each of them recognized the complexity of transitioning away from fossil fuels. In the individual face-to-face conversations Jones had with the interviewees, it didn’t sound like hateful propaganda or distrust. Jones affirms that we are a lot closer than we think, we just need to start talking to each other again.

Overall this was a really compelling film, especially impactful considering today’s polarized discourse. Jones and his team are brave to reach out to the opposite side, I can say I haven’t done that as much myself. I really like the focus on getting more pro-climate candidates in our government. Hoping to see such a change with the new incoming administration.

My key takeaways:

Climate is changing now, the future will be warmer, the science is in agreement
Individual action is not enough - we need large-scale systemic pollution reductions in order to see meaningful change
We need to talk to each other again, turn away from propaganda
Get more pro-climate candidates on local ballots to start seeing much-needed change

You can watch Purple Mountains on the website, and consider hosting a screening (virtually of course)

We need pro-climate candidates

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