When 27-year-old climate activist Evan Weber thinks about climate change, he thinks about his childhood in Hawaii. He spent those years in the mountains, on beaches, and in the ocean. 鈥淣ow the beaches that I grew up on don鈥檛 exist anymore,鈥� he says. 鈥淪ea-level rise . The mountains are green for much less of the year. The from ocean acidification killing both marine life and surf breaks.鈥�

That鈥檚 what brought him, on November 13, to march on soon-to-be House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi鈥檚 Capitol Hill office with around 150 other activists from a progressive group he cofounded called Sunrise Movement. They were demonstrating for a sweeping policy plan championed by congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called . It is pitched as an economy-wide climate mobilization to connect environmental, social, and economic policies through legislation and would create everything from investment in federal green jobs for all who want them to a massive green-infrastructure program. The end result would be an overhauled national economy run on 100 percent renewable energy.

While these are lofty goals, and many of the plan鈥檚 feasibility, advocates see it as setting the bar for a sufficient response to climate change that politicians can be held to. And the proposal is in Washington, D.C., as a platform to rally around heading into 2020: more than 40 lawmakers have endorsed Ocasio-Cortez鈥檚 call for a congressional select committee to map out the Green New Deal. Many in the outdoor industry are also paying attention to what could be the best hope to save our ski seasons and protect our public lands.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an approach that鈥檚 so comprehensive that it could be a way for the United States to lead in the direction of stabilizing the climate at two degrees Celsius,鈥� says Mario Molina, executive director of the advocacy group . According to a climate assessment put out by the federal government last month, warming above that threshold (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) before 2050.

Climate change is already impacting snowpack, and ski resorts across America are scrambling to adapt. This past year, Aspen Snowmass launched a political campaign called Give a Flake to get its customers engaged in climate action, Squaw Valley equipment in 2017, and Vail is pursuing its operations. But, Molina explains, there鈥檚 a long way to go to address the ski industry鈥檚 fossil-fuel-intensive operations. He believes that something like the economy-wide transition to renewable energy proposed in the Green New Deal is the best way ski resorts will be able to significantly lower their carbon footprints. It would allow them, for example, to hook their resorts up to a central power grid that would spin their lifts with renewable energy and create more sustainable transit options to and from the slopes.

Warming above that threshold (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) could shorten ski seasons by half in some parts of the U.S. before 2050.

Amy Roberts, executive director of , also sees the opportunity to link this kind of large-scale climate action with the outdoor economy, especially when it comes to public lands. An economy powered on 100 percent renewables would obviously erase any incentive for fossil-fuel companies to drill in places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Bears Ears National Monument. But the OIA is still watching to see how the politics around the Green New Deal shape up. The early support from lawmakers is encouraging, but they鈥檙e mostly Democrats. Roberts insists that policies to protect the climate and public lands need bipartisan support, but she thinks that the outdoor industry can help make that happen. 鈥淲hen you look at who takes part in our activities, whether it鈥檚 hiking, camping, hunting, or fishing, there are both Republicans and Democrats,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 an opportunity to unite and bring a compelling message that鈥檚 separate and apart from what the environmental community is doing.鈥�

As proof, she points to the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Act. In November, Peach State voters passed the measure, in which sales tax from sporting goods and outdoor equipment is used to fund parks and trails, with 83 percent support. In the same election, the governor鈥檚 race was so divided that it went to a recount.

Even with glimpses of bipartisan support for the environment, Molina worries that the main hurdle Green New Deal legislation will face is influence from the fossil-fuel industry. Its lobbyists to campaigns in the 2016 election, and in 2018 a Washington State ballot measure that would have added a modest carbon tax on emissions and used the revenue to fund environmental and social programs. Additionally, former oil lobbyist David Bernhardt was tapped to replace Ryan Zinke as interior secretary in December.

But activists like Weber are not giving up. As part of their push for a Green New Deal, they have called for members of the Democratic leadership from fossil-fuel interests. And a few weeks after Weber was in Nancy Pelosi鈥檚 office, he and more than 1,000 young people were back in Washington, D.C., this time storming Capitol Hill in a daylong push to get lawmakers to endorse the Green New Deal, an effort that resulted in nearly 150 arrests. They remain unfazed by claims that the plan鈥檚 goals are too large. 鈥淎 Green New Deal is the only proposal put forth by an American politician that鈥檚 in line with what the latest science says is necessary to prevent irreversible climate change,鈥� Weber says. 鈥淚t could mean the difference between whether future generations around the world get to have the same formative experiences in nature that I did鈥攐r not.鈥�

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Last September, a 29-year-old Navajo climber named Len Necefer posted a photo of a young woman named Monserrat A Matehuala standing on the summit of Longs Peak, one of Colorado鈥檚 best known 14ers. What was significant was not that she summited鈥攈undreds do each year. It was the location in the geotag that accompanied the post: Nen铆is贸toy贸煤鈥檜, the mountain鈥檚 Arapaho name.

The post was just one salvo in a quiet campaign waged by Necefer, a member of the Navajo Nation who now lives in Colorado. He earned his PhD in engineering from Carnegie Mellon, and then began working for the U.S. Department of Energy鈥檚 Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs. In March 2017, Necefer also founded . While it began as a social media effort to advocate for public lands and diversify the outdoor industry, it soon became something much larger. Today, Natives Outdoors makes gear (, ) and works with athletes, brands, and organizations to spread its message.

鈥淭he creation of the first national parks, like Yellowstone and Glacier, was predicated on the forced removal of indigenous populations from these areas,鈥� says Necefer. 鈥淚t created this myth that these are untouched wilderness areas.鈥�

When he first began his geotagging eforts, Necefer knew that Facebook鈥檚 check-in function had the option to create new locations. As an engineer, he also knew that Facebook and Instagram have an integrated back-end. So if he checked in somewhere on Facebook and created a new location through Facebook, it would generate a geotag for that location on both social media platforms. Meaning he could then take a photo, post it on Instagram, and tag it with the new location.

The idea for indigenous geotags first came to Necefer in early 2017, a few months after he had finished climbing the four sacred mountains of the Navajo Nation: Sisnaajini (Blanca Peak) in Colorado; Dook始o始oos艂铆铆d, Nuvatukya鈥檕vi, and Wi:munakwa (the San Francisco Peaks) in Arizona; Dibe Ntsaa (Hesperus Mountain) in Colorado; and Tsoodzi艂 (Mount Taylor) in New Mexico. He had climbed the mountains for ceremonial reasons, but like most climbers, Necefer also came home with summit photos and was eager to share them on social media. 鈥淚 wanted to share the photos and thought I would love to share them with the indigenous place names,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen I couldn鈥檛 find them, I decided to create them.鈥�

By September, Necefer had expanded the project into the Colorado Front Range and began to involve his @NativesOutdoors Instagram followers and other Native American climbers in the project. On one climb, he and five other indigenous climbers summited Mount Belford, a 14,203-foot peak in Colorado鈥檚 Collegiate Range. Their summit photo, posted on September 7, tagged the mountain as Hiwoxuu Hookuhu鈥檈e.

鈥淭he climb was nontechnical and straightforward,鈥� says Necefer. And yet, he says, it was the first significant peak for many in the group, who grew up (like Necefer) not thinking that climbing was something that indigenous people did. 鈥淭he more I researched, the more I learned that there were a lot of first ascents by Native people.鈥�

This research, which Necefer describes as a blend of scholarly research and gathering traditional indigenous knowledge, led him to the work of Andrew Cowell, a linguistics professor at the University of Colorado鈥揃oulder who worked with Arapaho elders to record across the western United States, including dozens within Colorado鈥檚 Rocky Mountain National Park. 鈥淭he University of Colorado had a webpage, but it hadn鈥檛 been updated since 2004,鈥� Necefer says.

Necefer has since worked to create indigenous place-name geotags for what he estimates as more than 40 mountains, most of them in and around Colorado. He also inspired Joseph Whitson, a non-Native student at the University of Minnesota, to launch another Instagram account, . That handle aims to use social media to educate Americans about the traditional indigenous lands where national parks now sit.

鈥淚 think Len鈥檚 work is incredibly important,鈥� Whitson says. 鈥淩estoring names is a way of reclaiming not just the peaks, but all the cultural significance embedded in the names themselves.鈥�

That effort is occurring offline, too. In Minnesota, for example, lawmakers plan to rename Lake Calhoun to its Dakota name of Maka Ska. In Washington, a proposal to rename Squaw Creek to Swaram Creek, its Methow name, has gained widespread support from both Native and non-Native groups, including the U.S. Forest Service.

Whether or not they鈥檙e successful, Necefer sees the project as a way of getting people tuned into a bigger conversation about the indigenous histories of wild places. 鈥淥nce people see the names, they get curious,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t gives you just a little bit of information and can spark the interest in finding out more.鈥�

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