0:00:00.881,0:00:04.873
My siblings and I grew up[br]on our great-grandfather's farm

0:00:04.897,0:00:06.047
in California.

0:00:06.825,0:00:10.103
It was a landscape[br]of our family and our home.

0:00:10.490,0:00:13.164
When it was clear[br]that nobody in our generation

0:00:13.188,0:00:16.109
wanted to take on[br]the heavy burden of ranching,

0:00:16.133,0:00:18.333
the ranch was sold to a neighbor.

0:00:18.696,0:00:21.895
The anchor of our lives was cut,

0:00:21.919,0:00:25.516
and we felt adrift[br]in the absence of that land.

0:00:26.125,0:00:30.592
For the first time, I came to understand

0:00:30.616,0:00:34.031
that something valuable[br]can be best understood

0:00:34.055,0:00:37.053
not by its presence,

0:00:37.077,0:00:38.664
but by its absence.

0:00:40.387,0:00:42.122
It was impossible to know then

0:00:42.146,0:00:46.807
just how powerful the absence[br]of those things we love

0:00:46.831,0:00:50.948
would have an impact far into my future.

0:00:51.527,0:00:55.559
For 23 years, my working life[br]was with Yvon Chouinard.

0:00:56.139,0:00:58.821
I started when he was designing[br]and manufacturing

0:00:58.845,0:01:00.815
technical rock and ice climbing equipment

0:01:00.839,0:01:04.069
in a tin shed near[br]the railroad tracks in Ventura.

0:01:04.093,0:01:07.291
And when Yvon decided[br]to start making clothes for climbers,

0:01:07.315,0:01:10.228
and call this business Patagonia,

0:01:10.252,0:01:13.212
I became one of the first six employees,

0:01:13.236,0:01:15.149
later becoming CEO

0:01:15.173,0:01:17.561
and helping build a company

0:01:17.585,0:01:21.633
where creating the best products[br]and doing good by the world

0:01:21.657,0:01:23.590
was more than just a tagline.

0:01:24.198,0:01:29.150
Doug Tompkins, who would become[br]my husband years later,

0:01:29.174,0:01:33.014
was an old friend and climbing[br]companion of Yvon's,

0:01:33.038,0:01:35.323
and also an entrepreneur.

0:01:35.919,0:01:39.252
He cofounded The North Face[br]and Esprit company.

0:01:39.276,0:01:41.331
All three of these businesses

0:01:41.355,0:01:44.887
were created by people[br]who had grown up through the '60s,

0:01:44.911,0:01:49.783
shaped by the civil rights, antiwar,[br]feminist and peace movements.

0:01:49.807,0:01:53.998
And those values[br]were picked up in those years

0:01:54.022,0:01:57.895
and carried throughout[br]the values of these companies.

0:01:57.919,0:01:59.506
By the end of the 1980s,

0:01:59.530,0:02:02.387
Doug decided to leave business altogether

0:02:02.411,0:02:05.950
and commit the last third of his life[br]to what he called

0:02:05.974,0:02:08.355
"paying his rent[br]for living on the planet."

0:02:08.379,0:02:11.926
At nearly the same time, when I hit 40,

0:02:11.950,0:02:15.366
I was ready to do something[br]completely new with my life.

0:02:15.676,0:02:19.343
The day after retiring[br]from the Patagonia company,

0:02:19.367,0:02:24.454
I flew 6,000 miles to Patagonia the place,

0:02:24.478,0:02:30.276
and joined Doug as he started[br]what was the first conservation project

0:02:30.300,0:02:32.033
of that third of his life.

0:02:32.371,0:02:35.742
There we were, refugees[br]from the corporate world,

0:02:35.766,0:02:38.718
holed up in a cabin on the coast[br]in southern Chile,

0:02:38.742,0:02:41.067
surrounded by primaeval rainforest

0:02:41.091,0:02:44.440
where alerce trees[br]can live for thousands of years.

0:02:44.464,0:02:46.993
We were in the middle[br]of a great wilderness

0:02:47.017,0:02:51.200
that forms one of the only two gaps[br]in the Pan-American highway,

0:02:51.224,0:02:54.152
between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Cape Horn.

0:02:54.176,0:02:56.466
A radical change to our daily lives

0:02:56.490,0:02:59.268
spurred on as we had begun to recognize

0:02:59.292,0:03:02.371
how beauty and diversity[br]were being destroyed

0:03:02.395,0:03:03.879
pretty much everywhere.

0:03:03.903,0:03:07.371
The last wild protected places on earth

0:03:07.395,0:03:08.594
were still wild

0:03:08.618,0:03:12.712
mostly because the relentless[br]front lines of development

0:03:12.736,0:03:14.973
simply hadn't arrived there yet.

0:03:14.997,0:03:18.236
Doug and I were in one[br]of the most remote parts on earth,

0:03:18.260,0:03:21.418
and still around the edges[br]of Pumalín Park,

0:03:21.442,0:03:23.696
our first conservation effort.

0:03:23.720,0:03:27.573
Industrial aquaculture[br]was growing like a malignancy.

0:03:27.886,0:03:31.942
Before too long, other threats[br]arrived to the Patagonia region.

0:03:31.966,0:03:35.991
Gold mining, dam projects[br]on pristine rivers,

0:03:36.015,0:03:38.046
and other growing conflicts.

0:03:38.070,0:03:43.650
The vibration of stampeding[br]economic growth worldwide

0:03:43.674,0:03:48.420
could be heard even in the highest[br]latitudes of the Southern Cone.

0:03:49.262,0:03:54.379
I know that progress is viewed,[br]generally, in very positive terms,

0:03:54.403,0:03:57.102
as some sort of hopeful evolution.

0:03:58.339,0:04:00.006
But from where we sat,

0:04:00.030,0:04:02.830
we saw the dark side of industrial growth.

0:04:03.292,0:04:08.014
And when industrial worldviews[br]are applied to natural systems

0:04:08.038,0:04:10.593
that support all life,

0:04:10.617,0:04:13.204
we begin to treat the Earth

0:04:13.228,0:04:17.695
as a factory that produces all the things[br]that we think we need.

0:04:18.958,0:04:22.077
As we're all painfully aware,

0:04:22.101,0:04:27.394
the consequences of that worldview[br]are destructive to human welfare,

0:04:27.418,0:04:30.033
our climate systems, and to wildlife.

0:04:31.167,0:04:34.476
Doug called it the price of progress.

0:04:34.500,0:04:36.119
That's how we saw things

0:04:36.143,0:04:39.011
and we wanted to be a part[br]of the resistance,

0:04:39.035,0:04:41.819
pushing up against all of those trends.

0:04:41.843,0:04:44.732
The idea of buying private land[br]and then donating it

0:04:44.756,0:04:46.748
to create national parks

0:04:46.772,0:04:48.231
isn't really new.

0:04:48.255,0:04:53.593
Anyone who has even enjoyed the views[br]of Teton National Park in Wyoming

0:04:53.617,0:04:56.823
or camped in Acadia National Park in Maine

0:04:56.847,0:04:59.804
has benefited from this big idea.

0:05:00.339,0:05:01.926
Through our family foundation,

0:05:01.950,0:05:06.347
we began to acquire wildlife habitat[br]in Chile and Argentina.

0:05:07.141,0:05:09.673
Being believers in conservation biology,

0:05:09.697,0:05:13.309
we were going for big, wild and connected.

0:05:14.085,0:05:16.760
Areas that were pristine, in some cases,

0:05:16.784,0:05:19.498
and others that would need time to heal,

0:05:19.522,0:05:21.903
that needed to be rewild.

0:05:21.927,0:05:25.085
Eventually, we bought[br]more than two million acres

0:05:25.109,0:05:26.720
from willing sellers,

0:05:26.744,0:05:31.140
assembling them into privately[br]managed protected areas,

0:05:31.164,0:05:36.370
while building park infrastructure[br]as camp grounds and trails,

0:05:36.394,0:05:39.124
for future use by the general public.

0:05:39.148,0:05:40.298
All were welcome.

0:05:40.879,0:05:45.767
Our goal was to donate all of this land[br]in the form of new national parks.

0:05:46.395,0:05:52.332
You might describe this[br]as a kind of capitalist jujitsu move.

0:05:53.101,0:05:57.005
We deployed private wealth[br]from our business lives,

0:05:58.632,0:06:02.466
and deployed it to protect nature

0:06:02.490,0:06:07.926
from being devoured by the hand[br]of the global economy.

0:06:07.950,0:06:09.284
It sounded good,

0:06:09.308,0:06:11.537
but in the early '90s in Chile,

0:06:11.561,0:06:15.069
where wildlands philanthropy,[br]which is what we called it,

0:06:15.093,0:06:17.378
was completely unknown,

0:06:17.402,0:06:20.561
we faced tremendous suspicion,

0:06:20.585,0:06:23.728
and, from many quarters,[br]downright hostility.

0:06:24.101,0:06:28.196
Over time, largely by doing[br]what we said we were doing,

0:06:28.220,0:06:30.087
we began to win people over.

0:06:30.577,0:06:32.585
Over the last 27 years,

0:06:32.609,0:06:36.837
we've permanently protected[br]nearly 15 million acres

0:06:36.861,0:06:39.218
of temperate rainforest,

0:06:39.242,0:06:41.623
Patagonian step grasslands,

0:06:41.647,0:06:43.274
coastal areas,

0:06:43.298,0:06:45.091
freshwater wetlands,

0:06:45.115,0:06:48.124
and created 13 new national parks.

0:06:48.148,0:06:50.537
All comprised of our land donations

0:06:50.561,0:06:54.663
and federal lands[br]adjoining those territories.

0:06:55.378,0:06:58.531
After Doug's death[br]following a kayaking accident

0:06:58.555,0:07:00.412
four years ago,

0:07:00.436,0:07:03.928
the power of absence hit home again.

0:07:03.952,0:07:09.086
But we at Tompkins Conservation[br]leaned in to our loss

0:07:09.110,0:07:11.452
and accelerated our efforts.

0:07:11.476,0:07:13.738
Among them, in 2018,

0:07:13.762,0:07:19.522
creating new marine national parks[br]covering roughly 25 million acres

0:07:19.546,0:07:21.601
in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

0:07:21.625,0:07:25.347
No commercial fishing[br]or extraction of any kind.

0:07:25.919,0:07:31.467
In 2019, we finalized[br]the largest private land gift in history,

0:07:31.491,0:07:35.364
when our last million acres[br]of conservation land in Chile

0:07:35.388,0:07:37.133
passed to the government.

0:07:37.157,0:07:39.839
A public-private partnership

0:07:39.863,0:07:44.085
that created five new national parks[br]and expanded three others.

0:07:44.109,0:07:48.371
This ended up being[br]an area larger than Switzerland.

0:07:48.395,0:07:52.220
All of our projects[br]are the results of partnerships.

0:07:52.244,0:07:56.370
First and foremost with the governments[br]of Chile and Argentina.

0:07:56.768,0:07:58.942
And this requires leadership

0:07:58.966,0:08:03.101
who understands the value of protecting[br]the jewels of their countries,

0:08:03.125,0:08:06.212
not just for today,[br]but long into the future.

0:08:07.548,0:08:12.064
Partnerships with like-minded[br]conservation philanthropists as well

0:08:12.088,0:08:14.921
played a role in everything we've done.

0:08:14.945,0:08:16.437
Fifteen years ago,

0:08:16.461,0:08:17.863
we asked ourselves,

0:08:17.887,0:08:20.307
"Beyond protecting landscape,

0:08:20.331,0:08:25.958
what do we really have to do[br]to create fully functioning ecosystems?"

0:08:26.268,0:08:30.220
And we began to ask ourselves,[br]wherever we were working,

0:08:30.244,0:08:31.394
who's missing,

0:08:32.133,0:08:34.220
what species had disappeared

0:08:35.441,0:08:38.925
or whose numbers were low and fragile.

0:08:39.235,0:08:40.997
We also had to ask,

0:08:41.021,0:08:43.387
"How do we eliminate the very reason

0:08:43.411,0:08:46.363
that these species went extinct[br]in the first place?"

0:08:46.387,0:08:48.680
What seems so obvious now

0:08:48.704,0:08:53.062
was a complete thunderbolt for us.

0:08:54.387,0:08:59.656
And it changed the nature[br]of everything we do,

0:08:59.680,0:09:00.830
completely.

0:09:01.220,0:09:05.878
Unless all the members of the community[br]are present and flourishing,

0:09:05.902,0:09:10.767
it's impossible for us to leave behind[br]fully functioning ecosystems.

0:09:11.204,0:09:15.690
Since then, we've successfully[br]reintroduced several native species

0:09:15.714,0:09:17.587
to the Iberá Wetlands:

0:09:17.611,0:09:19.365
giant anteaters,

0:09:19.389,0:09:20.770
pampas deer,

0:09:20.794,0:09:22.063
peccaries,

0:09:22.087,0:09:28.053
and finally, one of the most difficult,[br]the green-winged macaws,

0:09:28.077,0:09:32.736
who've gone missing[br]for over 100 years in that ecosystem.

0:09:32.760,0:09:36.958
And today, they're back,[br]flying free, dispensing seeds,

0:09:36.982,0:09:40.054
playing out their lives as they should be.

0:09:40.078,0:09:42.613
The capstone of these efforts in Iberá

0:09:42.637,0:09:46.720
is to return the apex carnivores[br]to their rightful place.

0:09:46.744,0:09:50.211
Jaguars on the land,[br]giant otters in the water.

0:09:50.235,0:09:55.093
Several years of trial and error[br]produced young cubs

0:09:55.117,0:09:57.649
who will be released,

0:09:57.673,0:10:00.776
for the first time in over half a century,

0:10:00.800,0:10:02.434
into Iberá wetlands,

0:10:02.458,0:10:08.291
and now, the 1.7-million-acre Iberá Park[br]will provide enough space

0:10:08.315,0:10:12.783
for recovering jaguar populations[br]with low risk of conflict

0:10:12.807,0:10:15.077
with neighboring ranchers.

0:10:15.101,0:10:17.680
Our rewilding projects in Chile

0:10:17.704,0:10:21.256
are gaining ground on low numbers[br]of several key species

0:10:21.280,0:10:22.844
in the Patagonia region.

0:10:22.868,0:10:26.606
The huemul deer[br]that is truly nearly extinct,

0:10:26.630,0:10:28.060
the lesser rheas

0:10:28.084,0:10:33.401
and building the puma[br]and fox populations back up.

0:10:33.782,0:10:38.218
You know, the power[br]of the absent can't help us

0:10:39.599,0:10:42.924
if it just leads to nostalgia or despair.

0:10:45.025,0:10:46.382
To the contrary,

0:10:47.485,0:10:50.322
it's only useful if it motivates us

0:10:50.346,0:10:54.659
toward working to bring back[br]what's gone missing.

0:10:55.349,0:10:57.905
Of course, the first step in rewilding

0:10:57.929,0:11:01.547
is to be able to imagine[br]that it's possible in the first place.

0:11:01.571,0:11:06.077
That wildlife abundance[br]recorded in journals

0:11:06.101,0:11:10.109
aren't just stories[br]from some old dusty books.

0:11:11.529,0:11:13.278
Can you imagine that?

0:11:14.994,0:11:20.454
Do you believe the world[br]could be more beautiful,

0:11:20.478,0:11:21.879
more equitable?

0:11:23.375,0:11:24.525
I do.

0:11:24.982,0:11:26.382
Because I've seen it.

0:11:26.800,0:11:28.212
Here's an example.

0:11:28.236,0:11:30.649
When we purchased[br]one of the largest ranches

0:11:30.673,0:11:33.923
in Chile and Patagonia, in 2004,

0:11:33.947,0:11:35.258
it looked like this.

0:11:35.282,0:11:39.106
For a century, this land[br]had been overgrazed by livestock,

0:11:39.130,0:11:41.789
like most grasslands around the world.

0:11:41.813,0:11:44.205
Soil erosion was rampant,

0:11:44.229,0:11:47.063
hundreds of miles of fencing

0:11:47.087,0:11:52.634
kept wildlife and its flow corralled.

0:11:52.658,0:11:55.660
And that was with the little[br]wildlife that was left.

0:11:55.684,0:12:00.080
The local mountain lions and foxes[br]had been persecuted for decades,

0:12:00.104,0:12:02.184
leaving their numbers very low.

0:12:02.208,0:12:07.655
Today, those lands are the 763,000-acre[br]Patagonian National Park,

0:12:07.679,0:12:09.289
and it looks like this.

0:12:09.313,0:12:11.592
And Arcelio, the former gaucho,

0:12:11.616,0:12:17.839
whose job was to first find and kill[br]mountain lions in the years past,

0:12:17.863,0:12:22.863
today is the head tracker[br]for the Park's wildlife team,

0:12:22.887,0:12:27.832
and his story captures the imagination[br]of people around the world.

0:12:28.350,0:12:29.500
What is possible.

0:12:30.096,0:12:36.158
I share these thought and images with you[br]not for self-congratulations,

0:12:36.182,0:12:38.331
but to make a simple point

0:12:38.355,0:12:40.488
and propose an urgent challenge.

0:12:41.109,0:12:43.268
If the question is survival,

0:12:43.292,0:12:47.776
survival of life's diversity[br]and human dignity,

0:12:47.800,0:12:51.252
and healthy human communities,

0:12:51.276,0:12:54.337
then the answer must include[br]rewilding the Earth.

0:12:55.903,0:12:58.765
As much and as quickly as possible.

0:13:00.038,0:13:03.355
Everyone has a role to play in this,

0:13:04.125,0:13:08.219
but especially those of us with privilege,

0:13:08.243,0:13:11.760
with political power,

0:13:11.784,0:13:12.934
wealth,

0:13:14.442,0:13:18.799
where, let's face it,[br]for better, for worse,

0:13:18.823,0:13:22.347
that's where the chess game[br]of our future is played out.

0:13:23.664,0:13:26.055
And this gets to the core of the question.

0:13:26.910,0:13:30.825
Are we prepared to do what it takes[br]to change the end of this story?

0:13:31.600,0:13:34.577
The changes the world has made[br]in the past few months

0:13:34.601,0:13:37.149
to stop the spread of COVID-19

0:13:37.173,0:13:39.045
are so promising to me,

0:13:39.069,0:13:44.188
because it shows we can join forces[br]under desperate circumstances.

0:13:44.506,0:13:49.815
What we're going through now[br]could be a precursor

0:13:49.839,0:13:55.474
to the broader potential damage[br]as a result of the climate crisis.

0:13:56.561,0:13:58.236
But without warning,

0:13:58.260,0:14:03.482
globally, we're learning to work together[br]in ways we could never have imagined.

0:14:03.506,0:14:06.363
Having watched young people[br]from around the world

0:14:06.387,0:14:09.085
rising up and going out into the streets

0:14:09.109,0:14:14.517
to remind us of our culpability[br]and chastising us for our inaction

0:14:14.541,0:14:17.033
are the ones who really inspire me.

0:14:17.057,0:14:19.938
I know, you've heard all of this before.

0:14:19.962,0:14:23.990
But if there was ever a moment[br]to awaken to the reality

0:14:24.014,0:14:28.490
that everything is connected[br]to everything else,

0:14:28.514,0:14:29.664
it's right now.

0:14:29.998,0:14:33.363
Every human life[br]is affected by the actions

0:14:33.387,0:14:36.506
of every other human life[br]around the globe.

0:14:36.530,0:14:41.394
And the fate of humanity[br]is tied to the health of the planet.

0:14:43.072,0:14:44.905
We have a common destiny.

0:14:44.929,0:14:46.691
We can flourish

0:14:46.715,0:14:48.099
or we can suffer ...

0:14:49.580,0:14:51.997
But we're going to be doing it together.

0:14:52.490,0:14:54.109
So here's the truth.

0:14:54.133,0:14:58.995
We're so far past the point[br]when individual action is an elective.

0:14:59.530,0:15:03.188
In my opinion, it's a moral imperative

0:15:03.212,0:15:05.672
that every single one of us

0:15:05.696,0:15:09.998
steps up to reimagine[br]our place in the circle of life.

0:15:10.022,0:15:13.498
Not in the center,[br]but as part of the whole.

0:15:13.522,0:15:15.299
We need to remember

0:15:15.323,0:15:18.390
that what we do[br]reflects who we choose to be.

0:15:18.895,0:15:21.276
Let's create a civilization

0:15:21.300,0:15:25.085
that honors the intrinsic[br]value of all life.

0:15:25.909,0:15:27.941
No matter who you are,

0:15:27.965,0:15:30.893
no matter what you have to work with,

0:15:30.917,0:15:34.123
get out of bed every single morning,

0:15:34.147,0:15:38.120
and do something that has nothing[br]to do with yourself,

0:15:38.144,0:15:43.595
but rather having everything to do[br]with those things you love.

0:15:44.366,0:15:47.290
With those things you know to be true.

0:15:47.314,0:15:51.022
Be someone who imagines human progress

0:15:51.046,0:15:54.275
to be something that moves us[br]toward wholeness.

0:15:54.608,0:15:55.758
Toward health.

0:15:56.473,0:15:58.108
Toward human dignity.

0:15:59.013,0:16:01.116
And always,

0:16:01.140,0:16:03.172
and forever,

0:16:03.196,0:16:04.521
wild beauty.

0:16:06.365,0:16:07.515
Thank you.