Protect Our Winters And 11th Hour Racing Launch New Water Alliance

POW and 11th Hour Racing are launching a Water Alliance to raise awareness about the link between land and water, and to add water communities to the wider Outdoor State.

Photo by Donny O’Neill (Courtesy of POW)

Protect Our Winters (POW) and 11th Hour Racing are launching a new “Water Alliance” that aims to turn climate passion in water-based communities into climate action. The POW Water Alliance will make its official debut on Tuesday, September 23rd, during New York City Climate Week.

The new initiative “further expands and unites athletes, creatives, scientists, and community leaders from water-based sports and regions to take action at the intersection of climate, land, and water.”

Since its creation in 2007, POW has used athlete storytelling and brand alliances to advocate for smarter climate and environmental policies that help protect the great American outdoors. Despite the controversy around climate politics (not the science, that much is crystal clear), the Colorado-based nonprofit is making a concerted effort to advocate alongside a greater number of communities across the country, this time with a focus on water.

Together with 11th Hour Racing, they have created the Water Alliance to raise awareness about water-related issues, engage local leaders, increase the social will for climate action in water communities, and advocate for stronger environmental protections. The end goal is to empower water-based communities with the tools and resources necessary to create the local solutions they require.

“Snow is the aquifer of our country,” says POW founder Jeremy Jones. Snowmelt fills U.S. rivers and lakes, and provides much of the freshwater needed to grow our crops, from California’s Central Valley through the breadbaskets of the Great Plains. If snowmelt fails, our ability to produce food will falter, and as ocean salinity, temperatures, and water levels increase, the livability of coastal communities decreases.

Part of the Water Alliance’s purpose is to show the inextricable link between water and land. In other words, through its ambassadors — scientists, community leaders, artists, and athletes — POW’s Water Alliance will highlight the effects of sea-level rise, extreme drought, storms, warming waters, and other water-related issues.

“The Water Alliance builds on a proven model of uniting trusted messengers to influence culture and policy,” says 11th Hour Racing CEO and Co-founder Jeremy Pochman. That storytelling will be used to drive local, regional, and national climate action at a time when 63% of Americans are worried about climate change and roughly the same percentage want both government and corporate action to address the issue.

Fishpond, a Colorado-based fishing, lifestyle, and field gear company, is one of the POW Water Alliance’s brand partners. “As an outdoor brand, our bottom line is tied to healthy ecosystems, says Ben Kurtz, owner and president of Fishpond. “We joined the POW Water Alliance because climate action isn’t optional for companies that depend on wild places, and healthy water connects those places from headwaters to coastlines. The outdoor industry has a responsibility to step up, not only as storytellers but as partners in real, place-based solutions.”

Creating the Water Alliance

Snowboarder Jeremy Jones founded POW to unite outdoor enthusiasts and raise awareness about the changing climate’s impact on the places we recreate.

Initially, POW focused on winter athletes, like skiers, snowboarders, and climbers, before adding trail runners, brands, scientists, and creatives to its growing “Outdoor State.” 11th Hour Racing, meanwhile, was created to find sustainable solutions in the maritime industry and build resilient ocean systems. With snow and ice disappearing rapidly, the two organizations felt it was the right moment to address the inseparable nature of land and water systems and drive climate action in both areas.

Jones says the drive to create the alliance came from the community. “Water lovers wanted to add their voices to the collective movement,” he notes.

The addition of coastal communities to the POW Outdoor State “increases POW’s “ability to work with more communities across the nation,” says Graham Zimmerman, POW Director of Athlete Alliances.

Meanwhile, Pochman says that the Water Alliance’s creation and subsequent amplification of marine issues comes at a time when “stuff is changing really fast and it’s hard to comprehend.” He notes that the average person feels overwhelmed by the data and size of the numbers being thrown around in climate discussions, and this has generated fear and questions.

Through the Water Alliance, POW and 11th Hour Racing will work to connect communities to human stories that make the climate numbers digestible and decrease the chance for a misunderstanding of what is happening to the planet. In doing so, both organizations hope people will be encouraged “to come together and protect the really important spaces and natural resources, not just for recreation, but as a core base of health, identity, community, and to ensure these spaces exist for generations to come.”

Water Alliance Ambassadors

“Stories are what build movements,” says Jeremy Jones. It is much easier to connect with a person who has skied the same slopes as you and seen age-old glaciers melting than to read and comprehend the implications of failed greenhouse gas reduction policies.

This is why POW is encouraging athletes, artists, CEOs, astronauts, and creatives to share their water-focused experiences. They will weave the water narrative into the story of the 180 million-member Outdoor State.

The initial ambassadors of the Water Alliance are Olympian and professional offshore sailor, Francesca Clapcich; wildlife biologist and advocate Eeland Stribling; U.S. national team rower and UN climate communicator Christine Cavallo; fly-fishing guide Hilary Hutcheson; professional surfer and PhD chemist Cliff Kapono; solo sailor Liz Clark; scientist Shawnee Traylor; and Indigenous Mayan surfer Mario Ordoñez-Calderón.

Clapcich, who at the time of writing is competing in the Ocean Race Europe, says she is “honored” to be sharing her stories in service of the Water Alliance. The Italian has been part of POW’s wider athlete alliance for over a year and is an 11th Hour Racing sponsored athlete. She is a world champion offshore and Olympic sailor, and avid skier, but unfortunately, she is seeing dangerous changes in both environments.

Snow is melting quicker and there is less of it during longer stretches of the year. On the water, she is seeing more plastic pollution, but more alarmingly, higher salinity levels are making the oceans less habitable for marine life, and higher water temperatures are making storms stronger and more difficult to predict. Weather models are no longer as reliable, which “creates uncertainty when going offshore.” In competition, that changes an athlete’s sailing strategy, but when shipping goods, fishing, or transporting people, safety is the primary concern.

Clapcich is optimistic by nature and says it is important for people to keep hope, which is why she is happy to use her own stories to speak up about climate issues. Alongside the other POW Water Alliance ambassadors, she is encouraging people from different communities and faiths to use their voice to protect the planet and fight for their rights to clean and accessible water for generations to come.

Water Alliance Objects

In the words of Graham Zimmerman, “it is an exceptionally challenging moment for the climate fight in the United States.”

Zimmerman has seen the effects of climate change firsthand. He recalls hiking up K2, the world’s second-highest peak, and being waylaid for fourteen hours as the route he was on melted due to extreme heat. Despite the realities of climate change and citizen demand for action, there has been a lack of political will to change policies.

According to him, converting social will into political will over the next year(s) remains the most challenging prospect. But that is exactly what the Water Alliance aims to do. On a macro level, the Water Alliance’s ambassadors will help create awareness and increase social will for change. They will help connect the dots between science and real life, educating voters and elected officials. On a micro level, the Water Alliance will use POW and 11th Hour Racing’s longstanding climate resilience toolkits and expertise, and tailor them to the individual communities.

Community officials, outdoor enthusiasts, and even CEOs will be trained and provided with the resources necessary to create real change in their communities. The Water Alliance is also looking to establish coastal community hubs in places where there are members of the Outdoor State. There, they will look to establish concrete clean energy projects that will transform the environment for the better. As Zimmerman says, the Water Alliance is looking to create tangible wins and “get steel in the ground.”

None of this will be easy, especially in the current political environment, but Zimmerman says, “even under this current administration, the clean energy transition is happening.” The Water Alliance aims to be the push needed across the country that bridges the connection between land and water and drives policy action.