RIP, Doug Tompkins
December 9, 2015 1:01 PM Subscribe
Conservationist and North Face founder Doug Tompkins died Tuesday in a kayaking accident in Patagonian Chile.
In San Francisco, Doug Tompkins founded the outdoor equipment company The North Face as a mountain shop and mail order business in 1966, selling it a few years later. In 1968, he co-founded the women's clothing company Esprit with then-wife Susie Tompkins Buell. Esprit later became a billion-dollar enterprise. After Esprit grew into a giant company, Tompkins sold his interest in 1989 and moved to Chilean Patagonia. Here, Tompkins and his wife Kristine McDivett Tompkins, bought over 2.2 million acres of wild land, becoming some of the largest private landowners in the world.
They created Pumalin Park, a large tract of 803,200 acres of rainforest undisturbed by logging, mining, and other human activity in Chile's Palena Province. Other land was donated for national parks in both Chile and Argentina. They were creating a Patagonia National Park in Chile as well as a park to protect the rich Ibera wetlands in northeastern Argentina.
In San Francisco, Doug Tompkins founded the outdoor equipment company The North Face as a mountain shop and mail order business in 1966, selling it a few years later. In 1968, he co-founded the women's clothing company Esprit with then-wife Susie Tompkins Buell. Esprit later became a billion-dollar enterprise. After Esprit grew into a giant company, Tompkins sold his interest in 1989 and moved to Chilean Patagonia. Here, Tompkins and his wife Kristine McDivett Tompkins, bought over 2.2 million acres of wild land, becoming some of the largest private landowners in the world.
They created Pumalin Park, a large tract of 803,200 acres of rainforest undisturbed by logging, mining, and other human activity in Chile's Palena Province. Other land was donated for national parks in both Chile and Argentina. They were creating a Patagonia National Park in Chile as well as a park to protect the rich Ibera wetlands in northeastern Argentina.
If I were Yvon Chouinard I'd definitely be sticking to southerly slopes from here on out.
posted by 7segment at 1:20 PM on December 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by 7segment at 1:20 PM on December 9, 2015 [4 favorites]
Yvon Chouinard and Rick Ridgeway were also floating in the 40 degree water for a few hours with him.
Them's some old school modern adventurers, all in the shit together right there.
posted by dglynn at 1:45 PM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Them's some old school modern adventurers, all in the shit together right there.
posted by dglynn at 1:45 PM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
.
posted by oceanjesse at 3:56 PM on December 9, 2015
posted by oceanjesse at 3:56 PM on December 9, 2015
I was in Chilean Patagonia right when he purchased the land for Pumalin and wow were the conspiracy theories and hate flowing his way from the locals. There were posters on the phone poles and protests in the street against this gringo coming in and dividing the country in half with his personal park. It sounds like the atmosphere has gotten better since.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 4:01 PM on December 9, 2015
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 4:01 PM on December 9, 2015
Yvon Chouinard and Rick Ridgeway were also floating in the 40 degree water for a few hours with him.
Details are obviously still sketchy, but in the version linked in this FPP, Choinard was on shore during the event, "terribly shaken but physically okay."
Here, Tompkins and his wife Kristine McDivett Tompkins, bought over 2.2 million acres of wild land
Without diminishing their motives or accomplishments, it is important to note that the land they bought was not entirely untouched wilderness, and instead had first supported indigenous populations and later uses included agriculture and mining, and that their purchases were and remain intensely controversial. Environmentalists are getting a lot better at navigating that kind of intersectionality, but there have been and continue to be quite simplistic statements made about much more complex situations. Personally I think the acquisitions are for the good, while also acknowledging the costs.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:13 PM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Details are obviously still sketchy, but in the version linked in this FPP, Choinard was on shore during the event, "terribly shaken but physically okay."
Here, Tompkins and his wife Kristine McDivett Tompkins, bought over 2.2 million acres of wild land
Without diminishing their motives or accomplishments, it is important to note that the land they bought was not entirely untouched wilderness, and instead had first supported indigenous populations and later uses included agriculture and mining, and that their purchases were and remain intensely controversial. Environmentalists are getting a lot better at navigating that kind of intersectionality, but there have been and continue to be quite simplistic statements made about much more complex situations. Personally I think the acquisitions are for the good, while also acknowledging the costs.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:13 PM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
.
posted by AugustWest at 9:11 PM on December 9, 2015
posted by AugustWest at 9:11 PM on December 9, 2015
.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 12:27 AM on December 10, 2015
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 12:27 AM on December 10, 2015
The movie 180 Degrees South has interviews with Tompkins and Yvon Chouinard, framed around the director wanting to "recreate" a trip Tompkins and Chouinard did together to visit Patagonia. It's on Netflix Instant and I think gives an interesting view of the founding the companies and the founders.
posted by skynxnex at 7:39 AM on December 10, 2015
posted by skynxnex at 7:39 AM on December 10, 2015
« Older 60 years of dropping bombs on America's enemies... | Devil's Hole Pupfish, the tiny, tenacious desert... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by andrewcooke at 1:17 PM on December 9, 2015