Jonathan Toews says he’s seen the reactions to his climate change tweets

Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews has made waves on social media. Toews’ social media presence on Instagram and Twitter has included posts about teammates (both past and present), his life off the ice, and his political ideology.

In an interview on “The Jeff Blair Show” on Sportsnet 590 The FAN on Friday morning, Toews dived into why he joined social media and the reactions he’s seen from fans to his posts.

Do you believe in climate change? Whether you’re super pumped that we are putting ‘Americans first’ or you are absolutely outraged at the idea that we are taking yet another step backwards in dealing with a major global problem, the only way to solve this argument is to try and set your own agenda aside and see how this affects everybody. The only lie we tell ourselves is that we are more special than other life forms on the planet. Well, we’re not. Even if we weren’t responsible for any major climate catastrophes heading our way, shouldn’t we still do our part to preserve what we have left? The same way that we shouldn’t wait till our bodies break down completely to start doing the right things to stay healthy, let’s not wait till it’s too late to do something. I am not saying I am perfectly ‘green’, but the first step is to keep an open mind and try to learn what you don’t already know.

A post shared by Jonathan Toews (@jonathantoews) on Jun 2, 2017 at 4:38pm PDT

“I guess a little bit, if you check the comments,” Toews told Blair of the post shown above, which was posted shortly after President Donald Trump decided to pull the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change. “At the end of the day, I try my best to not necessarily force my opinion or force what I think is right on anybody else. It’s clearly something I’ve been vocal about since I joined social media.”

“I think the major reason I got on social media to begin with was just to try and get into some nonprofit work and start to promote some ideas that I care about as far as health and wellness and, clearly, the environment. So, I think in this case, all I was just trying to say was, it doesn’t matter what your beliefs are or what you think you know, at the end of the day sometimes it’s worth putting that aside and listening to what your opponent or the opposition has to say.”