Climate Advocacy Group Touring Campuses, Sharing New Film

By Jeff Todd

GOLDEN, Colo. (CBS4) - A Colorado advocacy group is hoping to bring out more votes through snowboarding.

"Our mission is to help everybody who loves the outdoors become effective climate advocates," said Jake Black with Protect Our Winters. "What we want to do is collectively bring together the outdoor industry to speak up to what matters most to them."

POW has been holding screenings of a new film Ode to Muir at college campuses all over Colorado and the West. The movie features Jeremy Jones, a professional snowboarder and founder of POW, as he and a team travel deep into the Sierra Nevada Mountains all while discussing the changing climate.

"It's a great position for us to bring this to students and find common ground and talk to them about how it's that important to get out in the midterms," Black said. "We're seeing trends of snowpack declining and with less snowpack we have less water and with less water we don't have as much for farming or use at home."

POW is focused on a single issue, climate change, and is seeing that young people are picking issues instead of political parties.

"We want to make sure we're speaking up so that we're taking actions that are not only benefiting our economy but also protect these beautiful places we live and play in," Black said.

Ode to Muir is on a national tour and has several dates in Colorado through the rest of the year, you can find them here.

Jeff Todd joined the CBS4 team in 2011 covering the Western Slope in the Mountain Newsroom. Since 2015 he's been working across the Front Range in the Denver Headquarters. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Jeff.