Hello everyone, I am Antoine Pin, Director of the Protect Our Winters France association and passionate about mountain sports.
Today, I dedicate a large part of my daily life to mobilizing the outdoor community to commit to the climate. With the association, we create actions, campaigns and content to challenge outdoor sports practitioners and allow them to make their voice heard in decisions in favor of the climate. In particular, we are very active on the subject of soft, active and shared mobility, for which I work with many stakeholders: carriers, territories, elected officials, etc.
I owe my eco-responsible commitment to a trigger, an awareness:
While completing my first post-baccalaureate diploma, I had the opportunity to be confronted with a farmer who did not consider that his job had a link with the environment. It was an important trigger to see that a person who spent so much time outside and with a job so important to our society did not feel the strong connection with this theme. It made me want to help as many people as possible understand how their lives are linked to climate realities and the degradation of our environment.
In this sense, I am involved in / I support, I continued my studies to be better informed about the causes and consequences of global warming and once I obtained my diploma I worked directly in environmental education , first for 7 years in Montreal where I lived, then in France since my return 6 years ago. I am convinced that everyone can find a relevant entry point to the climate cause, an axis which makes the changes perceptible, and which creates a link and motivation with this desire to change the world. And this axis may be specific to each person, depending on our backgrounds, passions or experiences. This is why I encourage everyone to be curious about the many associations, small or large, that exist and wish to support us in this redirection of our lives. At POW Fr we think that it is our attachment to the spaces in which we practice our sports that is this source of motivation, but there are many others!!
The way I perceive the world around me and the way I interact with others has been strongly influenced by the encounters during my studies in Australia and Canada where I lived for a few years. Life as an immigrant with the difficulties with the administration or the distance that this can cause was impactful for me, and allowed me to become aware of the many privileges that I enjoyed without paying attention to them.
Since we are dwelling on this question, let me tell you an anecdote which illustrates this awareness:
When I entered Canada, I had not yet had my student visa validated and so I arrived in the country with only my enthusiasm, my French passport and a document from the university that welcomed me. Where many people from most of the world would have been sent back to their country of origin, my French passport was certainly seized, but I was still allowed to re-enter the territory while waiting for my papers to be processed a months later. It was a huge slap in the face, after having lived with roommates from all over the world (Brazil, Japan, India, Israel, Zimbabwe etc.) to realize that in the face of all the hardships they had experienced, the only difference was the nationality written on my passport.
I like to think that the desire to support noble causes is contagious. So if I had to give advice to those who have not yet taken the plunge: don't do it out of spite or obligation, look for what makes you deeply happy, there is a good chance that this thing will allow you to find a way to address the environmental cause
in a more enthusiastic and personal way. Whether it's fashion, music, agriculture, mechanics or video games, these passions that make us tick are directly linked to our connection to the world and can help us bring about the necessary change in our society.
However, adopting a more ethical and responsible lifestyle is not a linear process; I myself still eat meat meals more often than I would like, and as a good mountaineer, cheese still occupies too important a place in my life, so I cycle all the harder to go to the office!
Find more information on what Antoine and POW fr do right here
Or on Instagram: protectourwintersfrance