You love the winter powder. The white gold of winter. While many Canadians look out their windows and dread the snow shovelling and the icy drive to work, your heart gladdens at the sight of a powder day.
As a winter sports enthusiast, you see the impacts of changing winters first-hand. Has your riding area seen less snowfall over the past decade? Have some of your trails been closed or opened late due to lack of adequate snowfall or its late arrival?
Our winter playgrounds—and some of our livelihoods—depend on winter white. How will the winter sports you love be impacted by a changing climate?
Protect Our Winters (POW) was founded in 2007 by pro snowboarder Jeremy Jones, who was concerned about the lack of snow at some of his favourite haunts. Some resorts were even closed due to lack of snow.
The non-profit organization has expanded worldwide. In Canada, Protect Our Winters Canada is a passionate community of enthusiasts, professional athletes and industry brands uniting the outdoor community to address climate change.
“We believe our love of adventure in nature demands our participation in the fight to save and protect it,” states this group on its website.
The purpose of POW Canada
Taken together, the outdoor industry in Canada is huge, but the sector has not been organized to promote itself and its concerns collectively.
POW Canada works to keep winter white through action against climate change. There are many ways for outdoor sports enthusiasts to turn their passion into purpose, including:
- Become a member of POW Canada
- Join or start a local chapter
- Educate yourself
- Follow them on social media
- Reduce your carbon footprint
- Donate cold cash
How retailers can get involved
The success of POW Canada depends on its ability to build and mobilize a large and passionate community of outdoor enthusiasts. Retailers in our local communities have a direct link to outdoor enthusiasts and are seen as key players in POW’s mission.
To tap this potential, POW Canada created a Retailer Package available free of charge with everything a store needs to turn their clients into effective climate advocates. Included in each package is:
- Two white POW Canada Die-Cut Stickers (one for your door and one for your check-out)
- 2 POW Canada posters
- 4 POW Canada sign-up sheets
Stop the Grinch from stealing winter
The bitter, grouchy, cave-dwelling Grinch lives on a steep, snowy mountain—for now it’s still snowy. But according to a recent Government of Canada report, Canada is warming on average at a rate twice as fast as the rest of the world.
Canada's Arctic has seen the deepest impact and will continue to warm at more than double the global rate. The largest temperature increases have been seen in the North, the Prairies and northern British Columbia.
You can join the fight to save winters for all of us. And during your time off over the holidays, go enjoy some riding while we still have snow.
