The current debate surrounding climate change consists of most Democrats calling for urgent action and most Republicans either denying its existence or questioning its severity.
So conventional wisdom would suggest that legislation combating climate change in this Congress would be dead on arrival, falling into the abyss of the partisan divide.
But the Outdoor Industry Association, which represents the multibillion-dollar businesses of outdoor gear and food manufacturers and resorts — all directly harmed by the effects of climate change — is seeking to reframe the debate and bring about bipartisan action.
It’s an industry that lives at the intersection of business interests and environmentalism and Patricia Rojas-Ungár is its advocate in Washington. She’s the new vice president of government relations for the group, and she sees the outdoor industry as uniquely positioned to change the dynamics of the climate debate. “The outdoor industry can help serve as a bridge to a bipartisan conversation,” she says.
Rojas-Ungár is no stranger to the legislative process. Before joining the Outdoor Industry Association, she served as vice president of public affairs for the U.S. Travel Association, a lobbying group for hotels, restaurants and state tourism bureaus.
In 2011, when she was 37, Washingtonian magazine named her one of the 40 most influential lobbyists under the age of 40 and credited her with helping the travel association secure enactment of a 2010 law that created an advertising campaign to promote foreign travel to the United States, which had lagged after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Before that, she spent a number of years on Capitol Hill, first as an aide to California Democratic Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard and then on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. She’s originally from Mexico, emigrating to the U.S. at the age of 4.
The association has over 1,200 members, among them DuPont, Amazon, North Face, L.L. Bean and Patagonia.
Rojas-Ungár is confident that educating members of Congress on the industry’s outsized economic impact will get its policy agenda heard on Capitol Hill. She says outdoor sports make up an $887 billion market and support 7.6 million jobs, bigger than the agricultural or mining sectors.
The industry is distinctively threatened by climate change. Winter sports are most affected. Ski resorts are fretting about shorter and warmer seasons. But hotter summers are no fun for runners, hikers and bicyclists. When precipitation patterns change it can increase pollution flowing into water bodies, hurting kayakers and fishermen. And the increase in extreme weather and catastrophic natural disasters has also done untold damage.