“The 18-30 year old generation – more people actually tune in to watch the Super Bowl for the commercials than the actual game. It’s this odd narrative in the United States that there’s so much media around the Super Bowl commercials that even the next week or two after the Super Bowl, there’s countless articles and media covering the commercials and the favourite and controversial commercials. I think that’s the perfect platform to put together a commercial to scream the scientist’s data.”

Carr is no stranger to the topic. The skier – famous for once dropping a 210ft cliff on skis – is an ambassador for both the Jeremy Jones-founded Protect Our Winters and Al Gore-founded Climate Reality Project.

He’s also managed to get advertising agency Goodby Silverstein on board to produce the advert for free should the crowdfunder be successful. They’ve done adverts for everyone from Budweiser to Doritos in the past.

But does he really believes that it’s possible to raise so much money?

“I do,” Julian says. “A large majority of the US care deeply about these topics so we need to get aligned with these people and if we can then they’re going to want to get this into the national narrative.

“Pop culture has an appeal but the advert would also be dire; a slap in the face to show people that if you think it’s a non-issue and you’ve dismissed climate change as totally bullshit – this is what you’re going to deal with and this is what your children are going to be dealing with. I want it to be a shake up in the national narrative. It has to be something that leaves a deep sense that it’s up to us and we have to do something about it.

“It’s a really easy analogy to say that smoking cigarettes is bad for you. Our planet is essentially smoking cigarettes like crazy. So why not make the world a better place? Let’s get the planet off cigarettes.”

The obvious question to ask a professional skier of course, is if he feels like he’s seen the effects of climate change first hand over the years in the mountains.

While highlighting some interesting points, Julian is measured in his answer and focuses more on the bigger picture.

“There’s more severity,” he says. “Here in the North West, in the United States two years ago, our number one resort that gets the most snowfall annually is Mt. Baker. They average 641 inches of snowfall a year and they closed in March because they didn’t have snow, and then last year we had one of the biggest winters I’ve ever seen – in Utah and in other places actually, and this year we’re having one of the worst, low-tide winters I’ve seen.

“I find that it’s pretty easy to say you can see the effects but I just look at some of the amazing documentaries like ‘Chasing Ice’ in Greenland, where they actually show you how fast ice is melting. Also looking at radars which show the polar ice caps and how they used to freeze completely before the year 2000 but now are not. Looking at polar bears, looking at the sea legacy project – to me there are more conclusive ways to see than me as a pro skier saying that I’m seeing the effects.

“I’m travelling at high alpine at places which typically have consistent snow so it’s hard for me to definitively say that that’s an effect of climate change but I will say that it’s pretty inconsistent and the severity seems to be changing. I have a limited scope and limited ability to provide a conclusive answer to that, but there are conclusive places you can look.”

Next up for Julian is a month-long ski trip to the powder of Japan. With the Super Bowl looming though, it will be interesting to see how the campaign gets along. At the very least, as the skier highlights, he will have brought the conversation back into the public eye once more.

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