Nordic Nation: Andy Newell on a Greener World Cup

In this episode, we’ve got 34-year-old Andy Newell for you. He’s a longtime staple of the U.S. Ski Team and another proud Vermonter. A few weeks ago we released our interview with climate-justice activist and Vermont resident Bill McKibben. After the interview, we received a few comments that spoke to the perceived large carbon footprint of World Cup skiing and possible changes that might be implemented to curb that environmental impact. With that in mind, we called up Andy Newell, who himself is a climate activist to address some of the questions. We spoke to Newell on Jan. 4 while he was in Seefeld, Austria, prepping for last weekend’s World Cups.

American Andy Newell (l) follows Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (r) and Finland’s Iivo Niskanen (c) during their classic-sprint quarterfinal at the World Cup on Jan. 20 in Planica, Slovenia. Klæbo went on to win that heat, ahead of Niskanen in second and Newell in fourth. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

Newell will soon be in PyeongChang, South Korea, for his fourth Olympics. After traveling the globe for 14 years as a member of the U.S. Ski Team, Newell has had time to think about energy use and change on the World Cup.

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Jason Albert

Jason lives in Bend, Ore., and can often be seen chasing his two boys around town. He’s a self-proclaimed audio geek. That all started back in the early 1990s when he convinced a naive public radio editor he should report a story from Alaska’s, Ruth Gorge. Now, Jason’s common companion is his field-recording gear.