Auden Schendler, one of the biggest climate advocates in the outdoor industry,聽doesn鈥檛 start his new book, Terrible Beauty, with any of the myriad lessons he鈥檚 learned over decades of environmental work. Schendler, who is vice president of sustainability at Aspen One (parent company of Aspen Snowmass), doesn鈥檛 drop into scare tactics, or data, or the myriad ways global warming is harming recreation, business, and our ability to thrive. Instead, he opens with a camping trip in the Utah desert with a couple of buddies, chasing down dirt devils for the sheer glee of being outside in a storm.
If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.
The book goes on to examine the ways we need to approach environmentalism if we want to experience that joy in the future. In his 25 years heading up sustainability initiatives for one of the ski industry’s biggest corporations, Schendler has been at the forefront of climate action. He converted Aspen’s utility to renewables, convinced its tissue supplier to stop cutting down old-growth trees, and led the outdoor industry in political lobbying. But he says we need to do more. A lot more. Corporate sustainability is failing, he says, and individuals aren鈥檛 leveraging enough of our personal and political power because we鈥檝e been cowed into thinking we don鈥檛 have any. And now, the clock is ticking. According to Schendler, modern environmentalism is broken鈥攂ut he has some ideas about how to keep it moving forward.
Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul is a book about citizenship, the pursuit of purpose, and uphill battles you might not win but have to keep fighting anyway. It鈥檚 a book about right now.
What do you hope people take away from this book?
I want to suck people into the joy of the universe, then give them that technical payload on climate in a way that motivates them. When you ask people, 鈥淲hat do you care about?鈥 It’s things like community and family and wild places. But when you ask them, 鈥淲hat are you doing to protect those things against this existential threat?鈥 they throw up their hands. I wanted to give people tools to figure it out. So there鈥檚 a bunch of stuff about banks and how the financial sector impacts climate change, but this is a book about the human experience. I鈥檓 trying to say modern environmentalism is failing, but what can replace it? Can it be exciting?
Let鈥檚 talk about that failure. You鈥檝e that skiing is toast, and that we鈥檝e failed on climate as a society. How do we go forward in the face of that?
When you鈥檙e in a movement that鈥檚 losing it鈥檚 not glamorous, but this is where I think there鈥檚 a connection to the outdoor world. The purpose has to come in the doing of the thing. It鈥檚 like type 2 fun. It鈥檚 not about winning or losing鈥擨 think in any human endeavor it鈥檚 very rare to be able to say,聽鈥測es, we won.鈥 Instead, we have to think about it like a practice. We鈥檙e improving the world. As much as a day in my life as a climate fighter is depressing, it鈥檚 also fascinating and weird and filled with these odd twists and turns and micro wins and crippling losses. There鈥檚 a lot of glee in getting into mischief.
You argue that the ways we鈥檝e largely been doing environmental work, particularly corporate sustainability, isn鈥檛 actually addressing the root causes of global warming. How do we change?
When we discovered that CO2 was going to be a problem in the fifties, we should have started getting off [fossil fuels], but we didn鈥檛 because we were misinformed, or because politicians were bribed, and since then we鈥檝e been working toward targets that are in line with what the fossil fuel industry would want. For instance, in my world, the outdoor world, you could say, 鈥渓et鈥檚 talk about recycled skis,鈥 but that doesn鈥檛 really move the needle. Instead, we need to be publicly lobbying our peers and elected officials on climate.
What can someone like me, who isn鈥檛 part of a big business or advocacy group, do to move the needle?
My prescription is this: You get a six pack and you get a few smart friends, and you ask each other 鈥淲here do we have power?鈥 You come up with an answer, then dismiss it if it鈥檚 not to scale.
Think about environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who said 鈥淚鈥檓 going to sit in this one spot for a year.鈥 That helped. You have to just try some stuff. The question is really: Do we want to be citizens or not? Can you go to a town council meeting and talk about the planning and zoning board? You can鈥檛 just sign an online letter and call it good. You have to do real stuff and move your body and get out into society, instead of giving into the inclination to stay in or avoid confrontation.
That requires bandwidth, and there are people who don鈥檛 have that, and that鈥檚 OK too. Revolutions don鈥檛 come from 100 percent of the population mobilizing, it鈥檚 typically 4 to 9 percent, and that can make a difference.
Bandwidth, and who has the ability to act on climate, seems like a really big part of the conversation.
When climate is forcing you into survival mode, you don鈥檛 have the leisure that humans need to thrive. You can鈥檛 just be recovering from the last fire or flood all the time. This is environmentalism writ large right now. You think I have the luxury to care about climate? I can鈥檛 feed my family or pay my health care bills. This gets to the broader question of whether we鈥檙e actually taking care of each other, and we鈥檙e not.
The tension in the book is that the thing that could destroy us is also a fundamental opportunity for change as a society. How do you walk that line?
The cover of the book meant to express that. Like, 鈥淒amn, this thing is kind of fucked up, but it鈥檚 still beautiful.鈥 I think about Tolkien’s idea of the long defeat, and how we鈥檙e in this long battle of good versus evil. We鈥檙e slogging through Mordor. I think this is humanity鈥檚 biggest project but we鈥檙e still making things better. It鈥檚 going to be uncomfortable and hard, but it can still be full of purpose and joy.