Douglas Tompkins

Douglas Tompkins with wife Kris (2009)

Douglas "Doug" Tompkins (*  1943 in the state of Ohio ; † December 8, 2015 in Coyhaique , Chile ) was an American environmental activist and eco-entrepreneur and founder and former head of the textile brands The North Face and Esprit Holdings Limited.

Early life

Tompkins was born into a middle-class family in Ohio and raised in New York State. He was expelled from high school and has no high school degree. Since his youth he was very active in nature as a skier, mountaineer, hiker and kayaker.

Entrepreneurial career

In 1963 he founded a mountain sports school, to which he started selling equipment. In 1966 he founded The North Face with his then wife Susie and began manufacturing mountaineering and camping equipment. In many ways, the company set new quality standards for outdoor equipment. In 1969 Tompkins sold his shares in The North Face and focused on the one hand on making nature and adventure films and on the other hand on selling clothing. In the 1970s the company Esprit emerged, which he founded and managed together with his wife. Over the years, Tompkins developed an increasing ecological awareness and a more critical attitude towards the textile industry. In 1989 he sold his shares in Esprit for $ 250 million to his wife, whom he had separated from, and moved to Chile.

environmental Protection

There he acquired huge areas in Patagonia (southern Argentina and Chile ) to create national parks . He became the largest private landowner in Chile. In 1991 Douglas Tompkins bought the Reñihué Ranch with the intention of protecting the rainforest-covered area. In the following years he acquired further contiguous land with the US environmental foundation The Conservation Land Trust .

From 1992 to 1994 Tompkins bought around 3,000 km² of land in Chile in an area that stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Andes mountain ranges on the border with Argentina. Its aim was to create a contiguous protected area with the official status of a reserve . With his Chilean foundation EDUCEC (Education, Ciencia y Ecologia) he acquired large areas for the “ Pumalín Park ”. The park is located in the Región de los Lagos north of Chaitén . In total, Tompkins bought 10,000 km² of land in Chile and Argentina. The area corresponds to about half of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . In 2017, Tompkins donated the land to the Chilean government, which turned it into a national park.

Conservative forces in Chile and business associations defended themselves against his projects for many years. They saw Tompkins as a threat to national Chilean interests, especially to the development of the country and the economic exploitation of the rainforest areas .

The Tompkins Conservation founded by Tompkins has contributed to the creation or expansion of the following national parks, among others:

• Pumalin National Park in the Chilean Región de los Lagos
• Corcovado National Park in the Chilean Región de los Lagos
• Cerro Castillo National Park in the Chilean Región de Aysén
• Patagonia National Park in the Chilean Región de Aysén
• Iberá National Park in the Argentine Corrientes Province
• Monte Léon National Park in the Argentine Santa Cruz Province

Private

In his environmental philosophy, Tompkins appealed to the Norwegian environmentalist Arne Næss and hoped for many imitators among the rich.

Tompkins was very critical of the United States on many counts, but he was proud of the tradition of conservation there, which he considered to be the best in the world, as there was a piece of private philanthropy in every national park .

In an interview with the Earth Island Journal in 2012, he was critical of the economy of capitalism. This is "probably barely 500 years old", and it demonstrates time and again that it destroys the environment. There is no doubt that it is not sustainable ("There's no doubt whatsoever that there's no future in capitalism".).

In his first marriage, Tompkins was married to Susie Russel between 1964 and 1989. Tompkins was married to Kristine McDivitt , ex-boss of the clothing brand Patagonia , in 1993 .

Tompkins’s numerous engagements also included supporting the adbusters founded by Kalle Lasn .

Tompkins died of hypothermia when his kayak capsized as a result of strong winds while driving on Lake General Carrera .

Awards

• 2008 Bruno H. Schubert Prize (together with his wife Kristine McDivitt Tompkins)
• 2010 International BAUM Special Prize
• 2015 World Economic Prize

Films about Douglas Tompkins

• Chile: the rainforest of the fashion king. Documentation, author: Michael Stocks, production: ARD - Weltspiegel , December 18, 2005, video and table of contents ( memento of December 23, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) from NDR
• The paradise maker. Doug Tompkins Brave New World. Documentation, 3sat , first broadcast: January 13, 2006, repetition: September 22, 2007, table of contents by 3sat
• The Tompkins Empire. Nature parks instead of fashion trends. Documentation, Phoenix , sent on March 4, 2007, table of contents ( September 29, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive ) by Phoenix
• The "jungle savior". The king of fashion becomes a conservationist. Documentation, 30 min., A film by Michael Stocks, production: SWR , broadcast date: June 3, 2007, summary ( memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) by NDR
• A gringo on a green mission - How Doug Tompkins wants to save the wilderness. Director: Ralf Breier, Claudia Kuhland. A DreamTeam media production, 2010 in co-production with WDR, NDR and arte.
• A millionaire as a conservationist. Documentation, 45 min., Directors: Ralf Breier, Claudia Kuhland, NDR , broadcast dates: March 31, 2011 and January 10, 2013.
• Speed ​​- In search of lost time. Director: Florian Opitz , documentary, 2012.

literature

• Gonzalo Sánchez: La Patagonia Vendida (Spanish), Marea Editorial 2006, ISBN 987-1307-02-0 . Pumalín Park under fire.
• Douglas Tompkins , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 47/2011 from November 22, 2011, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
• Julia Roebke: "We'd have to pay rent for our place in the world" Interview with Douglas Tompkins . In: FAZ . June 13, 2008.
• Erwin Koch: The policeman. In: FAZ , June 14, 2008.

Web links

Commons : Douglas Tompkins  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Christian Thiele: Der Landnehmer In: Zeit Online , June 14, 2007.
• Douglas Tompkins, 72, North Face Founder, Dies in Kayaking Accident , New York Times , December 8, 2015

swell

1. ^ Douglas Tompkins - born to be wild | BERGSTEIGER magazine. Retrieved May 24, 2020 . 
2. ^ Spiegel online: North Face founder Tompkins: The Free Radical , December 9, 2015.
3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from June 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ http://www.3sat.de/3sat.php?http://www.3sat.de/kulturzeit/specials/102116/index.html .
5. ↑ Parque Pumalín | La Historia de Pumalín. Retrieved May 24, 2020 . 
6. ^ Tompkins Conservation. Retrieved May 24, 2020 . 
7. ^ ^{A b} Douglas Tompkins, co-founder of North Face, dies after Chile kayak accident in: The Guardian , December 9, 2015, accessed December 9, 2015.
8. ^ Conversation Doug Tompkins. Earth Island Journal, 2012, accessed December 9, 2015 . 
9. ^ Bruno H. Schubert Foundation: Prize Winner 2008 . Retrieved May 3, 2013.
10. ^ TREE: Douglas Tompkins - The Conservation Land Trust, Foundation for Deep Ecology. International BAUM special award . Retrieved May 3, 2013.
11. ↑ Philipp Isenbart: Rebel with a green heart.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , March 30, 2011. Accessed May 3, 2013.  
12. ↑ A millionaire conservationist: Doug Tompkins saves Chile's wilderness. ( Memento of December 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) NDR, January 10, 2013. Retrieved on May 3, 2013.
13. ↑ Meike Fries: Documentary "Speed": With the coffee to go in the hamster wheel . In: Zeit Online , September 25, 2012. Accessed May 3, 2013.