Wend: Tell us about yourself and how your experiences led you to create the organization.
Jones: I’ve been fortunate to travel and get firsthand experience in mountains around the world. In doing so, I’ve seen definitive change in the mountains. For years, I’ve been seeing this change, and I felt that as skiers and snowboarders out there being kind of on the front lines of climate change, it was our duty to protect our winters. I didn’t want to be the leader of this charge, but after a while the idea wouldn’t go away and I didn’t feel like there were other organizations out there that I connected to and could rally around. And so in 2007, I pulled the trigger and started POW.
Wend: Tell us about POW.
Jones: Our goal is to unite the winter sports community and bring them together to make a difference and slow down climate change. We have a school program we call “Hot Planet/Cool Athlete” where we go into the schools and we have this really upbeat, interactive presentation that we give with a scientist and a pro athlete and just explain to the kids: This is the planet you’re inheriting; here’s ways you can make a difference. Another is the “Coal Kills Snow” campaign. The first thing we need to do is stop bringing new coal-fired power plants to our world. Another thing that we’ve really been putting energy toward is going to Capitol Hill, using our membership base and going to these elected officials, saying, “Hey, climate change matters. All these people think climate change matters,” and really trying to affect our government’s policy on climate change. Because the reality is if we can do that—you know, that’s where the big change needs to happen.
Wend: Tell us about a rewarding project you’ve worked on.
Jones: Going into these schools gives me a lot of hope. The kids, they don’t want the status quo; they want the same environment that we have today. So they embrace the challenge and feel like they’re up for the challenge and they’re the ones that are going to, hopefully, make a big difference.
Wend: Tell us about some of the challenges POW faces.
Jones: It’s been frustrating that we’ve had to take steps back and put resources toward defending the science of climate change instead of putting resources into trying to fix it. And the “Coal Kills Snow” stuff—that’s also a hot topic of debate where the powers running these coal power plants are really good at spreading misinformation and making it out to be this big jobs issue and that solar and wind technology is amiss and what have you. We’re up against this mega-mega industry and we’re just this little, small foundation trying to go up against giants that are willing to spend their money to make sure that they can keep operating business as usual.
Wend: But you’ve had some success, right?
Jones: I don’t mean to be so negative. I’d say the positive thing is that we have some phenomenal people in the environmental field who’ve come to us and said, “What you guys are doing is really important because you’re the link between science and that everyday person.” So, as a foundation we’ve strengthened and grown and our members have become more and more passionate, and as a foundation we’ve gotten better and better because people realize that it’s really important—what we’re doing—and if we want to see change, we can’t just sit back and hope that the people in power are going to take care of it for us.
Wend: How can our readers get involved?
Jones: For sure being a part of POW. You can become a member by going to our website. The more people we have involved, the more power we have, the more we can show these people in power that this is important to us, a large group of people. And really being up to speed on local- and national-level politics and policy, reaching out and knowing when climate issues are coming up for election and voting accordingly, or letting your elected officials know you care about the environment. I mean, the cool thing is that these senators and congressmen, even the guys that don’t have the same views as us on climate change, all listen to the masses. Sure, if they get 10 e-mails on an issue, it doesn’t make that big of a difference, but if they get 2,000 e-mails on an issue—that makes a difference. They all said—the guys who are fans of ours—”We need your help. We need your members to speak up.” And then the guys that aren’t are saying, “You know, no one says a word. I’m not losing my job as a senator if I’m voting anti-climate, so I’m voting for what the people in my state want me to vote for.” You’ve got to become politically active. 
