Hey everyone! I’m super excited to share with you a piece I’ve been working on for MONTHS! And months.
It started as an ever-building cycle of thoughts during my long running days. Then lockdown gave the perfect opportunity to write it all properly, get others involved, and try to start some properly honest discussions in our outdoor community.
What influences the culture of our outdoor community? That’s key to creating change, so that is what needs to change.
“We need to face the fact that a lot of our outdoor culture is very destructive, and the athlete and adventurer lifestyle is a massive influencer in that. The flip side is that as soon as we start changing this, we’ll see widespread change throughout our community.”
I look at the influence of athletes and adventurers, brands and sponsorship, events and media. All of these things are linked, and in the way they are currently set up, are driving a culture that is pushing the climate crisis forwards.
We need to take an honest look at the gory details of this. The outdoor community especially needs this honesty, as too often well meaning but false claims of ‘being sustainable’ are made by brands, people, influencers, events etc, when the reality is that we need to seriously up our game and make big, bold change.
If that isn’t enough to convince you to read it, it also includes snippets of interviews from climate expert Mike Berners-Lee, adventurers Al Humphreys and Kate Rawles, and runners Finlay Wild, Damian Hall, Jim Mann (also co-founder of Trees not Tees), and Dan Lawson (also co-founder of ReRun clothing).
Please read it here, share your thoughts, send it to whoever you think should read it (fave influencers, event organisers, brands etc), then think about what part you play in all this and what else you can push for change. Thanks!
Rosie Watson 