ASB MAGAZINE: As a US-headquartered global business and in support of their mission statement – “We’re in business to save out home planet” – Patagonia looks to inspire voters to elect environmental champions (and remove climate deniers from office). In the forthcoming US Elections the company hopes to motivate people be a part of the democratic process with their new film ‘Public Trust’ and through the maketimetovote.org movement, a non-partisan coalition of businesses established in 2018.
‘Public Trust: The Fight for America’s Public Lands’ will make its online, free-to-watch premiere next Saturday, September 26, 10am AEST. It’s a timely documentary that puts the US’s public lands issue front and center before the US Elections in November. But it also shares some inspiring insights relevant to Australians, as the government moves to weaken our own nature laws.
Despite support from voters across the political spectrum, the public lands of the United States face unprecedented threats from extractive industries and the politicians in their pockets. Part love letter, part political exposé, ‘Public Trust’ investigates how we arrived at this precarious moment.
“Imagine our country without our public lands – without protected parks and streams, wilderness and other wild places. If the oil companies and this administration continue to choose rigs over your kids’ future, we will lose what’s left of our shared 640 million acres. Public Trust is a must see for everyone who enjoys spending time in wild places.”– Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard.
In other Patagonia news, you may have seen people sharing the underside of some Patagonia tags recently – yes, these are real, and they are on products in Australia. These tags were added to Patagonia’s 2020 Men’s and Women’s Road to Regenerative Organic Stand-Up Shorts because Patagonia have been standing up to climate deniers for almost as long as they’ve been making those shorts.
Patagonia Founder, Yvon Chouinard has been saying “vote the assholes out” for several years and it refers to politicians from any party who deny or disregard the climate crisis and ignore science, not because they aren’t aware of it, but because their pockets are lined with money from oil and gas interests.
Here is how Yvon recently put it in a letter to the 1% for the Planet community.
