WEBVTT 00:00:00.881 --> 00:00:04.873 My siblings and I grew up on our great-grandfather's farm 00:00:04.897 --> 00:00:06.047 in California. 00:00:06.825 --> 00:00:10.103 It was a landscape of our family and our home. 00:00:10.490 --> 00:00:13.164 When it was clear that nobody in our generation 00:00:13.188 --> 00:00:16.109 wanted to take on the heavy burden of ranching, 00:00:16.133 --> 00:00:18.333 the ranch was sold to a neighbor. 00:00:18.696 --> 00:00:21.895 The anchor of our lives was cut, 00:00:21.919 --> 00:00:25.516 and we felt adrift in the absence of that land. 00:00:26.125 --> 00:00:30.592 For the first time, I came to understand 00:00:30.616 --> 00:00:34.031 that something valuable can be best understood 00:00:34.055 --> 00:00:37.053 not by its presence, 00:00:37.077 --> 00:00:38.664 but by its absence. 00:00:40.387 --> 00:00:42.122 It was impossible to know then 00:00:42.146 --> 00:00:46.807 just how powerful the absence of those things we love 00:00:46.831 --> 00:00:50.948 would have an impact far into my future. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:51.527 --> 00:00:55.559 For 23 years, my working life was with Yvon Chouinard. 00:00:56.139 --> 00:00:58.821 I started when he was designing and manufacturing 00:00:58.845 --> 00:01:00.815 technical rock and ice climbing equipment 00:01:00.839 --> 00:01:04.069 in a tin shed near the railroad tracks in Ventura. 00:01:04.093 --> 00:01:07.291 And when Yvon decided to start making clothes for climbers 00:01:07.315 --> 00:01:10.228 and call this business Patagonia, 00:01:10.252 --> 00:01:13.212 I became one of the first six employees, 00:01:13.236 --> 00:01:15.149 later becoming CEO 00:01:15.173 --> 00:01:17.561 and helping build a company 00:01:17.585 --> 00:01:21.633 where creating the best products and doing good by the world 00:01:21.657 --> 00:01:23.590 was more than just a tagline. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:24.198 --> 00:01:29.150 Doug Tompkins, who would become my husband years later, 00:01:29.174 --> 00:01:33.014 was an old friend and climbing companion of Yvon's 00:01:33.038 --> 00:01:35.323 and also an entrepreneur. 00:01:35.919 --> 00:01:39.252 He cofounded The North Face and Esprit company. 00:01:39.276 --> 00:01:41.331 All three of these businesses 00:01:41.355 --> 00:01:44.887 were created by people who had grown up through the '60s, 00:01:44.911 --> 00:01:49.783 shaped by the civil rights, antiwar, feminist and peace movements. 00:01:49.807 --> 00:01:53.998 And those values were picked up in those years 00:01:54.022 --> 00:01:57.895 and carried throughout the values of these companies. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:57.919 --> 00:01:59.506 By the end of the 1980s, 00:01:59.530 --> 00:02:02.387 Doug decided to leave business altogether 00:02:02.411 --> 00:02:05.950 and commit the last third of his life to what he called 00:02:05.974 --> 00:02:08.355 "paying his rent for living on the planet." 00:02:08.379 --> 00:02:11.926 At nearly the same time, when I hit 40, 00:02:11.950 --> 00:02:15.366 I was ready to do something completely new with my life. 00:02:15.676 --> 00:02:19.343 The day after retiring from the Patagonia company, 00:02:19.367 --> 00:02:24.454 I flew 6,000 miles to Patagonia the place 00:02:24.478 --> 00:02:30.276 and joined Doug as he started what was the first conservation project 00:02:30.300 --> 00:02:32.033 of that third of his life. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:32.371 --> 00:02:35.742 There we were, refugees from the corporate world, 00:02:35.766 --> 00:02:38.718 holed up in a cabin on the coast in southern Chile, 00:02:38.742 --> 00:02:41.067 surrounded by primaeval rainforest 00:02:41.091 --> 00:02:44.440 where alerce trees can live for thousands of years. 00:02:44.464 --> 00:02:46.993 We were in the middle of a great wilderness 00:02:47.017 --> 00:02:51.200 that forms one of the only two gaps in the Pan-American highway, 00:02:51.224 --> 00:02:54.152 between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Cape Horn. 00:02:54.176 --> 00:02:56.466 A radical change to our daily lives 00:02:56.490 --> 00:02:59.268 spurred on as we had begun to recognize 00:02:59.292 --> 00:03:02.371 how beauty and diversity were being destroyed 00:03:02.395 --> 00:03:03.879 pretty much everywhere. 00:03:03.903 --> 00:03:07.371 The last wild protected places on earth 00:03:07.395 --> 00:03:08.594 were still wild 00:03:08.618 --> 00:03:12.712 mostly because the relentless front lines of development 00:03:12.736 --> 00:03:14.973 simply hadn't arrived there yet. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:14.997 --> 00:03:18.236 Doug and I were in one of the most remote parts on earth, 00:03:18.260 --> 00:03:21.418 and still around the edges of Pumalín Park, 00:03:21.442 --> 00:03:23.696 our first conservation effort, 00:03:23.720 --> 00:03:27.573 industrial aquaculture was growing like a malignancy. 00:03:27.886 --> 00:03:31.942 Before too long, other threats arrived to the Patagonia region. 00:03:31.966 --> 00:03:35.991 Gold mining, dam projects on pristine rivers 00:03:36.015 --> 00:03:38.046 and other growing conflicts. 00:03:38.070 --> 00:03:43.650 The vibration of stampeding economic growth worldwide 00:03:43.674 --> 00:03:48.420 could be heard even in the highest latitudes of the Southern Cone. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:49.262 --> 00:03:54.379 I know that progress is viewed, generally, in very positive terms, 00:03:54.403 --> 00:03:57.102 as some sort of hopeful evolution. 00:03:58.339 --> 00:04:00.006 But from where we sat, 00:04:00.030 --> 00:04:02.830 we saw the dark side of industrial growth. 00:04:03.292 --> 00:04:08.014 And when industrial worldviews are applied to natural systems 00:04:08.038 --> 00:04:10.593 that support all life, 00:04:10.617 --> 00:04:13.204 we begin to treat the Earth 00:04:13.228 --> 00:04:17.695 as a factory that produces all the things that we think we need. 00:04:18.958 --> 00:04:22.077 As we're all painfully aware, 00:04:22.101 --> 00:04:27.394 the consequences of that worldview are destructive to human welfare, 00:04:27.418 --> 00:04:30.033 our climate systems and to wildlife. 00:04:31.167 --> 00:04:34.476 Doug called it the price of progress. 00:04:34.500 --> 00:04:36.119 That's how we saw things, 00:04:36.143 --> 00:04:39.011 and we wanted to be a part of the resistance, 00:04:39.035 --> 00:04:41.819 pushing up against all of those trends. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:41.843 --> 00:04:44.732 The idea of buying private land and then donating it 00:04:44.756 --> 00:04:46.748 to create national parks 00:04:46.772 --> 00:04:48.231 isn't really new. 00:04:48.255 --> 00:04:53.593 Anyone who has ever enjoyed the views of Teton National Park in Wyoming 00:04:53.617 --> 00:04:56.823 or camped in Acadia National Park in Maine 00:04:56.847 --> 00:04:59.804 has benefited from this big idea. 00:05:00.339 --> 00:05:01.926 Through our family foundation, 00:05:01.950 --> 00:05:06.347 we began to acquire wildlife habitat in Chile and Argentina. 00:05:07.141 --> 00:05:09.673 Being believers in conservation biology, 00:05:09.697 --> 00:05:13.309 we were going for big, wild and connected. 00:05:14.085 --> 00:05:16.760 Areas that were pristine, in some cases, 00:05:16.784 --> 00:05:19.498 and others that would need time to heal, 00:05:19.522 --> 00:05:21.903 that needed to be rewild. 00:05:21.927 --> 00:05:25.085 Eventually, we bought more than two million acres 00:05:25.109 --> 00:05:26.720 from willing sellers, 00:05:26.744 --> 00:05:31.140 assembling them into privately managed protected areas, 00:05:31.164 --> 00:05:36.370 while building park infrastructure as camp grounds and trails 00:05:36.394 --> 00:05:39.124 for future use by the general public. 00:05:39.148 --> 00:05:40.298 All were welcome. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:45.767 Our goal was to donate all of this land in the form of new national parks. 00:05:46.395 --> 00:05:52.332 You might describe this as a kind of capitalist jujitsu move. 00:05:53.101 --> 00:05:57.005 We deployed private wealth from our business lives 00:05:58.632 --> 00:06:02.466 and deployed it to protect nature 00:06:02.490 --> 00:06:07.926 from being devoured by the hand of the global economy. 00:06:07.950 --> 00:06:09.284 It sounded good, 00:06:09.308 --> 00:06:11.537 but in the early '90s in Chile, 00:06:11.561 --> 00:06:15.069 where wildlands philanthropy, which is what we called it, 00:06:15.093 --> 00:06:17.378 was completely unknown, 00:06:17.402 --> 00:06:20.561 we faced tremendous suspicion, 00:06:20.585 --> 00:06:23.728 and from many quarters, downright hostility. 00:06:24.101 --> 00:06:28.196 Over time, largely by doing what we said we were doing, 00:06:28.220 --> 00:06:30.087 we began to win people over. 00:06:30.577 --> 00:06:32.585 Over the last 27 years, 00:06:32.609 --> 00:06:36.837 we've permanently protected nearly 15 million acres 00:06:36.861 --> 00:06:39.218 of temperate rainforest, 00:06:39.242 --> 00:06:41.623 Patagonian step grasslands, 00:06:41.647 --> 00:06:43.274 coastal areas, 00:06:43.298 --> 00:06:45.091 freshwater wetlands, 00:06:45.115 --> 00:06:48.124 and created 13 new national parks. 00:06:48.148 --> 00:06:50.537 All comprised of our land donations 00:06:50.561 --> 00:06:54.663 and federal lands adjoining those territories. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:55.378 --> 00:06:58.531 After Doug's death following a kayaking accident 00:06:58.555 --> 00:07:00.412 four years ago, 00:07:00.436 --> 00:07:03.928 the power of absence hit home again. 00:07:03.952 --> 00:07:09.086 But we at Tompkins Conservation leaned in to our loss 00:07:09.110 --> 00:07:11.452 and accelerated our efforts. 00:07:11.476 --> 00:07:13.738 Among them, in 2018, 00:07:13.762 --> 00:07:19.522 creating new marine national parks covering roughly 25 million acres 00:07:19.546 --> 00:07:21.601 in the southern Atlantic Ocean. 00:07:21.625 --> 00:07:25.347 No commercial fishing or extraction of any kind. 00:07:25.919 --> 00:07:31.467 In 2019, we finalized the largest private land gift in history, 00:07:31.491 --> 00:07:35.364 when our last million acres of conservation land in Chile 00:07:35.388 --> 00:07:37.133 passed to the government. 00:07:37.157 --> 00:07:39.839 A public-private partnership 00:07:39.863 --> 00:07:44.085 that created five new national parks and expanded three others. 00:07:44.109 --> 00:07:48.371 This ended up being an area larger than Switzerland. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:48.395 --> 00:07:52.220 All of our projects are the results of partnerships. 00:07:52.244 --> 00:07:56.370 First and foremost with the governments of Chile and Argentina. 00:07:56.768 --> 00:07:58.942 And this requires leadership 00:07:58.966 --> 00:08:03.101 who understands the value of protecting the jewels of their countries, 00:08:03.125 --> 00:08:06.212 not just for today, but long into the future. 00:08:07.548 --> 00:08:12.064 Partnerships with like-minded conservation philanthropists as well 00:08:12.088 --> 00:08:14.921 played a role in everything we've done. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:14.945 --> 00:08:16.437 Fifteen years ago, 00:08:16.461 --> 00:08:17.863 we asked ourselves, 00:08:17.887 --> 00:08:20.307 "Beyond protecting landscape, 00:08:20.331 --> 00:08:25.958 what do we really have to do to create fully functioning ecosystems?" 00:08:26.268 --> 00:08:30.220 And we began to ask ourselves, wherever we were working, 00:08:30.244 --> 00:08:31.394 who's missing, 00:08:32.133 --> 00:08:34.220 what species had disappeared 00:08:35.441 --> 00:08:38.925 or whose numbers were low and fragile. 00:08:39.235 --> 00:08:40.997 We also had to ask, 00:08:41.021 --> 00:08:43.387 "How do we eliminate the very reason 00:08:43.411 --> 00:08:46.363 that these species went extinct in the first place?" 00:08:46.387 --> 00:08:48.680 What seems so obvious now 00:08:48.704 --> 00:08:53.062 was a complete thunderbolt for us. 00:08:54.387 --> 00:08:59.656 And it changed the nature of everything we do, 00:08:59.680 --> 00:09:00.830 completely. 00:09:01.220 --> 00:09:05.878 Unless all the members of the community are present and flourishing, 00:09:05.902 --> 00:09:10.767 it's impossible for us to leave behind fully functioning ecosystems. 00:09:11.204 --> 00:09:15.690 Since then, we've successfully reintroduced several native species 00:09:15.714 --> 00:09:17.587 to the Iberá Wetlands: 00:09:17.611 --> 00:09:19.365 giant anteaters, 00:09:19.389 --> 00:09:20.770 pampas deer, 00:09:20.794 --> 00:09:22.063 peccaries 00:09:22.087 --> 00:09:28.053 and finally, one of the most difficult, the green-winged macaws, 00:09:28.077 --> 00:09:32.736 who've gone missing for over 100 years in that ecosystem. 00:09:32.760 --> 00:09:36.958 And today, they're back, flying free, dispensing seeds, 00:09:36.982 --> 00:09:40.054 playing out their lives as they should be. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:40.078 --> 00:09:42.613 The capstone of these efforts in Iberá 00:09:42.637 --> 00:09:46.720 is to return the apex carnivores to their rightful place. 00:09:46.744 --> 00:09:50.211 Jaguars on the land, giant otters in the water. 00:09:50.235 --> 00:09:55.093 Several years of trial and error produced young cubs 00:09:55.117 --> 00:09:57.649 who will be released 00:09:57.673 --> 00:10:00.776 for the first time in over half a century 00:10:00.800 --> 00:10:02.434 into Iberá wetlands, 00:10:02.458 --> 00:10:08.291 and now, the 1.7-million-acre Iberá Park will provide enough space 00:10:08.315 --> 00:10:12.783 for recovering jaguar populations with low risk of conflict 00:10:12.807 --> 00:10:15.077 with neighboring ranchers. 00:10:15.101 --> 00:10:17.680 Our rewilding projects in Chile 00:10:17.704 --> 00:10:21.256 are gaining ground on low numbers of several key species 00:10:21.280 --> 00:10:22.844 in the Patagonia region. 00:10:22.868 --> 00:10:26.606 The huemul deer that is truly nearly extinct, 00:10:26.630 --> 00:10:28.060 the lesser rheas 00:10:28.084 --> 00:10:33.401 and building the puma and fox populations back up. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:33.782 --> 00:10:38.218 You know, the power of the absent can't help us 00:10:39.599 --> 00:10:42.924 if it just leads to nostalgia or despair. 00:10:45.025 --> 00:10:46.382 To the contrary, 00:10:47.485 --> 00:10:50.322 it's only useful if it motivates us 00:10:50.346 --> 00:10:54.659 toward working to bring back what's gone missing. 00:10:55.349 --> 00:10:57.905 Of course, the first step in rewilding 00:10:57.929 --> 00:11:01.547 is to be able to imagine that it's possible in the first place. 00:11:01.571 --> 00:11:06.077 That wildlife abundance recorded in journals 00:11:06.101 --> 00:11:10.109 aren't just stories from some old dusty books. 00:11:11.529 --> 00:11:13.278 Can you imagine that? 00:11:14.994 --> 00:11:20.454 Do you believe the world could be more beautiful, 00:11:20.478 --> 00:11:21.879 more equitable? 00:11:23.375 --> 00:11:24.525 I do. 00:11:24.982 --> 00:11:26.382 Because I've seen it. 00:11:26.800 --> 00:11:28.212 Here's an example. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:28.236 --> 00:11:30.649 When we purchased one of the largest ranches 00:11:30.673 --> 00:11:33.923 in Chile and Patagonia, in 2004, 00:11:33.947 --> 00:11:35.258 it looked like this. 00:11:35.282 --> 00:11:39.106 For a century, this land had been overgrazed by livestock, 00:11:39.130 --> 00:11:41.789 like most grasslands around the world. 00:11:41.813 --> 00:11:44.205 Soil erosion was rampant, 00:11:44.229 --> 00:11:47.063 hundreds of miles of fencing 00:11:47.087 --> 00:11:52.634 kept wildlife and its flow corralled. 00:11:52.658 --> 00:11:55.660 And that was with the little wildlife that was left. 00:11:55.684 --> 00:12:00.080 The local mountain lions and foxes had been persecuted for decades, 00:12:00.104 --> 00:12:02.184 leaving their numbers very low. 00:12:02.208 --> 00:12:07.655 Today, those lands are the 763,000-acre Patagonian National Park, 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:09.289 and it looks like this. 00:12:09.313 --> 00:12:11.592 And Arcelio, the former gaucho, 00:12:11.616 --> 00:12:17.839 whose job was to first find and kill mountain lions in the years past, 00:12:17.863 --> 00:12:22.863 today is the head tracker for the park's wildlife team, 00:12:22.887 --> 00:12:27.832 and his story captures the imagination of people around the world. 00:12:28.350 --> 00:12:29.500 What is possible. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:30.096 --> 00:12:36.158 I share these thoughts and images with you not for self-congratulations, 00:12:36.182 --> 00:12:38.331 but to make a simple point 00:12:38.355 --> 00:12:40.488 and propose an urgent challenge. 00:12:41.109 --> 00:12:43.268 If the question is survival, 00:12:43.292 --> 00:12:47.776 survival of life's diversity and human dignity 00:12:47.800 --> 00:12:51.252 and healthy human communities, 00:12:51.276 --> 00:12:54.337 then the answer must include rewilding the Earth. 00:12:55.903 --> 00:12:58.765 As much and as quickly as possible. 00:13:00.038 --> 00:13:03.355 Everyone has a role to play in this, 00:13:04.125 --> 00:13:08.219 but especially those of us with privilege, 00:13:08.243 --> 00:13:11.760 with political power, 00:13:11.784 --> 00:13:12.934 wealth, 00:13:14.442 --> 00:13:18.799 where, let's face it, for better, for worse, 00:13:18.823 --> 00:13:22.347 that's where the chess game of our future is played out. 00:13:23.664 --> 00:13:26.055 And this gets to the core of the question. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:26.910 --> 00:13:30.825 Are we prepared to do what it takes to change the end of this story? 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:34.577 The changes the world has made in the past few months 00:13:34.601 --> 00:13:37.149 to stop the spread of COVID-19 00:13:37.173 --> 00:13:39.045 are so promising to me, 00:13:39.069 --> 00:13:44.188 because it shows we can join forces under desperate circumstances. 00:13:44.506 --> 00:13:49.815 What we're going through now could be a precursor 00:13:49.839 --> 00:13:55.474 to the broader potential damage as a result of the climate crisis. 00:13:56.561 --> 00:13:58.236 But without warning, 00:13:58.260 --> 00:14:03.482 globally, we're learning to work together in ways we could never have imagined. 00:14:03.506 --> 00:14:06.363 Having watched young people from around the world 00:14:06.387 --> 00:14:09.085 rising up and going out into the streets 00:14:09.109 --> 00:14:14.517 to remind us of our culpability and chastising us for our inaction 00:14:14.541 --> 00:14:17.033 are the ones who really inspire me. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:17.057 --> 00:14:19.938 I know, you've heard all of this before. 00:14:19.962 --> 00:14:23.990 But if there was ever a moment to awaken to the reality 00:14:24.014 --> 00:14:28.490 that everything is connected to everything else, 00:14:28.514 --> 00:14:29.664 it's right now. 00:14:29.998 --> 00:14:33.363 Every human life is affected by the actions 00:14:33.387 --> 00:14:36.506 of every other human life around the globe. 00:14:36.530 --> 00:14:41.394 And the fate of humanity is tied to the health of the planet. 00:14:43.072 --> 00:14:44.905 We have a common destiny. 00:14:44.929 --> 00:14:46.691 We can flourish 00:14:46.715 --> 00:14:48.099 or we can suffer ... 00:14:49.580 --> 00:14:51.997 But we're going to be doing it together. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:52.490 --> 00:14:54.109 So here's the truth. 00:14:54.133 --> 00:14:58.995 We're so far past the point when individual action is an elective. 00:14:59.530 --> 00:15:03.188 In my opinion, it's a moral imperative 00:15:03.212 --> 00:15:05.672 that every single one of us 00:15:05.696 --> 00:15:09.998 steps up to reimagine our place in the circle of life. 00:15:10.022 --> 00:15:13.498 Not in the center, but as part of the whole. 00:15:13.522 --> 00:15:15.299 We need to remember 00:15:15.323 --> 00:15:18.390 that what we do reflects who we choose to be. 00:15:18.895 --> 00:15:21.276 Let's create a civilization 00:15:21.300 --> 00:15:25.085 that honors the intrinsic value of all life. 00:15:25.909 --> 00:15:27.941 No matter who you are, 00:15:27.965 --> 00:15:30.893 no matter what you have to work with, 00:15:30.917 --> 00:15:34.123 get out of bed every single morning, 00:15:34.147 --> 00:15:38.120 and do something that has nothing to do with yourself, 00:15:38.144 --> 00:15:43.595 but rather having everything to do with those things you love. 00:15:44.366 --> 00:15:47.290 With those things you know to be true. 00:15:47.314 --> 00:15:51.022 Be someone who imagines human progress 00:15:51.046 --> 00:15:54.275 to be something that moves us toward wholeness. 00:15:54.608 --> 00:15:55.758 Toward health. 00:15:56.473 --> 00:15:58.108 Toward human dignity. 00:15:59.013 --> 00:16:01.116 And always, 00:16:01.140 --> 00:16:03.172 and forever, 00:16:03.196 --> 00:16:04.521 wild beauty. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:06.365 --> 00:16:07.515 Thank you.