Let's make the world wild again
-
0:01 - 0:05My siblings and I grew up
on our great-grandfather's farm -
0:05 - 0:06in California.
-
0:07 - 0:10It was a landscape
of our family and our home. -
0:10 - 0:13When it was clear
that nobody in our generation -
0:13 - 0:16wanted to take on
the heavy burden of ranching, -
0:16 - 0:18the ranch was sold to a neighbor.
-
0:19 - 0:22The anchor of our lives was cut,
-
0:22 - 0:26and we felt adrift
in the absence of that land. -
0:26 - 0:31For the first time, I came to understand
-
0:31 - 0:34that something valuable
can be best understood -
0:34 - 0:37not by its presence,
-
0:37 - 0:39but by its absence.
-
0:40 - 0:42It was impossible to know then
-
0:42 - 0:47just how powerful the absence
of those things we love -
0:47 - 0:51would have an impact far into my future.
-
0:52 - 0:56For 23 years, my working life
was with Yvon Chouinard. -
0:56 - 0:59I started when he was designing
and manufacturing -
0:59 - 1:01technical rock and ice climbing equipment
-
1:01 - 1:04in a tin shed near
the railroad tracks in Ventura. -
1:04 - 1:07And when Yvon decided
to start making clothes for climbers -
1:07 - 1:10and call this business Patagonia,
-
1:10 - 1:13I became one of the first six employees,
-
1:13 - 1:15later becoming CEO
-
1:15 - 1:18and helping build a company
-
1:18 - 1:22where creating the best products
and doing good by the world -
1:22 - 1:24was more than just a tagline.
-
1:24 - 1:29Doug Tompkins, who would become
my husband years later, -
1:29 - 1:33was an old friend and climbing
companion of Yvon's -
1:33 - 1:35and also an entrepreneur.
-
1:36 - 1:39He cofounded The North Face
and Esprit company. -
1:39 - 1:41All three of these businesses
-
1:41 - 1:45were created by people
who had grown up through the '60s, -
1:45 - 1:50shaped by the civil rights, antiwar,
feminist and peace movements. -
1:50 - 1:54And those values
were picked up in those years -
1:54 - 1:58and carried throughout
the values of these companies. -
1:58 - 2:00By the end of the 1980s,
-
2:00 - 2:02Doug decided to leave business altogether
-
2:02 - 2:06and commit the last third of his life
to what he called -
2:06 - 2:08"paying his rent
for living on the planet." -
2:08 - 2:12At nearly the same time, when I hit 40,
-
2:12 - 2:15I was ready to do something
completely new with my life. -
2:16 - 2:19The day after retiring
from the Patagonia company, -
2:19 - 2:24I flew 6,000 miles to Patagonia the place
-
2:24 - 2:30and joined Doug as he started
what was the first conservation project -
2:30 - 2:32of that third of his life.
-
2:32 - 2:36There we were, refugees
from the corporate world, -
2:36 - 2:39holed up in a cabin on the coast
in southern Chile, -
2:39 - 2:41surrounded by primaeval rainforest
-
2:41 - 2:44where alerce trees
can live for thousands of years. -
2:44 - 2:47We were in the middle
of a great wilderness -
2:47 - 2:51that forms one of the only two gaps
in the Pan-American highway, -
2:51 - 2:54between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Cape Horn.
-
2:54 - 2:56A radical change to our daily lives
-
2:56 - 2:59spurred on as we had begun to recognize
-
2:59 - 3:02how beauty and diversity
were being destroyed -
3:02 - 3:04pretty much everywhere.
-
3:04 - 3:07The last wild protected places on earth
-
3:07 - 3:09were still wild
-
3:09 - 3:13mostly because the relentless
front lines of development -
3:13 - 3:15simply hadn't arrived there yet.
-
3:15 - 3:18Doug and I were in one
of the most remote parts on earth, -
3:18 - 3:21and still around the edges
of Pumalín Park, -
3:21 - 3:24our first conservation effort,
-
3:24 - 3:28industrial aquaculture
was growing like a malignancy. -
3:28 - 3:32Before too long, other threats
arrived to the Patagonia region. -
3:32 - 3:36Gold mining, dam projects
on pristine rivers -
3:36 - 3:38and other growing conflicts.
-
3:38 - 3:44The vibration of stampeding
economic growth worldwide -
3:44 - 3:48could be heard even in the highest
latitudes of the Southern Cone. -
3:49 - 3:54I know that progress is viewed,
generally, in very positive terms, -
3:54 - 3:57as some sort of hopeful evolution.
-
3:58 - 4:00But from where we sat,
-
4:00 - 4:03we saw the dark side of industrial growth.
-
4:03 - 4:08And when industrial worldviews
are applied to natural systems -
4:08 - 4:11that support all life,
-
4:11 - 4:13we begin to treat the Earth
-
4:13 - 4:18as a factory that produces all the things
that we think we need. -
4:19 - 4:22As we're all painfully aware,
-
4:22 - 4:27the consequences of that worldview
are destructive to human welfare, -
4:27 - 4:30our climate systems and to wildlife.
-
4:31 - 4:34Doug called it the price of progress.
-
4:34 - 4:36That's how we saw things,
-
4:36 - 4:39and we wanted to be a part
of the resistance, -
4:39 - 4:42pushing up against all of those trends.
-
4:42 - 4:45The idea of buying private land
and then donating it -
4:45 - 4:47to create national parks
-
4:47 - 4:48isn't really new.
-
4:48 - 4:54Anyone who has ever enjoyed the views
of Teton National Park in Wyoming -
4:54 - 4:57or camped in Acadia National Park in Maine
-
4:57 - 5:00has benefited from this big idea.
-
5:00 - 5:02Through our family foundation,
-
5:02 - 5:06we began to acquire wildlife habitat
in Chile and Argentina. -
5:07 - 5:10Being believers in conservation biology,
-
5:10 - 5:13we were going for big, wild and connected.
-
5:14 - 5:17Areas that were pristine, in some cases,
-
5:17 - 5:19and others that would need time to heal,
-
5:20 - 5:22that needed to be rewild.
-
5:22 - 5:25Eventually, we bought
more than two million acres -
5:25 - 5:27from willing sellers,
-
5:27 - 5:31assembling them into privately
managed protected areas, -
5:31 - 5:36while building park infrastructure
as camp grounds and trails -
5:36 - 5:39for future use by the general public.
-
5:39 - 5:40All were welcome.
-
5:41 - 5:46Our goal was to donate all of this land
in the form of new national parks. -
5:46 - 5:52You might describe this
as a kind of capitalist jujitsu move. -
5:53 - 5:57We deployed private wealth
from our business lives -
5:59 - 6:02and deployed it to protect nature
-
6:02 - 6:08from being devoured by the hand
of the global economy. -
6:08 - 6:09It sounded good,
-
6:09 - 6:12but in the early '90s in Chile,
-
6:12 - 6:15where wildlands philanthropy,
which is what we called it, -
6:15 - 6:17was completely unknown,
-
6:17 - 6:21we faced tremendous suspicion,
-
6:21 - 6:24and from many quarters,
downright hostility. -
6:24 - 6:28Over time, largely by doing
what we said we were doing, -
6:28 - 6:30we began to win people over.
-
6:31 - 6:33Over the last 27 years,
-
6:33 - 6:37we've permanently protected
nearly 15 million acres -
6:37 - 6:39of temperate rainforest,
-
6:39 - 6:42Patagonian step grasslands,
-
6:42 - 6:43coastal areas,
-
6:43 - 6:45freshwater wetlands,
-
6:45 - 6:48and created 13 new national parks.
-
6:48 - 6:51All comprised of our land donations
-
6:51 - 6:55and federal lands
adjoining those territories. -
6:55 - 6:59After Doug's death
following a kayaking accident -
6:59 - 7:00four years ago,
-
7:00 - 7:04the power of absence hit home again.
-
7:04 - 7:09But we at Tompkins Conservation
leaned in to our loss -
7:09 - 7:11and accelerated our efforts.
-
7:11 - 7:14Among them, in 2018,
-
7:14 - 7:20creating new marine national parks
covering roughly 25 million acres -
7:20 - 7:22in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
-
7:22 - 7:25No commercial fishing
or extraction of any kind. -
7:26 - 7:31In 2019, we finalized
the largest private land gift in history, -
7:31 - 7:35when our last million acres
of conservation land in Chile -
7:35 - 7:37passed to the government.
-
7:37 - 7:40A public-private partnership
-
7:40 - 7:44that created five new national parks
and expanded three others. -
7:44 - 7:48This ended up being
an area larger than Switzerland. -
7:48 - 7:52All of our projects
are the results of partnerships. -
7:52 - 7:56First and foremost with the governments
of Chile and Argentina. -
7:57 - 7:59And this requires leadership
-
7:59 - 8:03who understands the value of protecting
the jewels of their countries, -
8:03 - 8:06not just for today,
but long into the future. -
8:08 - 8:12Partnerships with like-minded
conservation philanthropists as well -
8:12 - 8:15played a role in everything we've done.
-
8:15 - 8:16Fifteen years ago,
-
8:16 - 8:18we asked ourselves,
-
8:18 - 8:20"Beyond protecting landscape,
-
8:20 - 8:26what do we really have to do
to create fully functioning ecosystems?" -
8:26 - 8:30And we began to ask ourselves,
wherever we were working, -
8:30 - 8:31who's missing,
-
8:32 - 8:34what species had disappeared
-
8:35 - 8:39or whose numbers were low and fragile.
-
8:39 - 8:41We also had to ask,
-
8:41 - 8:43"How do we eliminate the very reason
-
8:43 - 8:46that these species went extinct
in the first place?" -
8:46 - 8:49What seems so obvious now
-
8:49 - 8:53was a complete thunderbolt for us.
-
8:54 - 9:00And it changed the nature
of everything we do, -
9:00 - 9:01completely.
-
9:01 - 9:06Unless all the members of the community
are present and flourishing, -
9:06 - 9:11it's impossible for us to leave behind
fully functioning ecosystems. -
9:11 - 9:16Since then, we've successfully
reintroduced several native species -
9:16 - 9:18to the Iberá Wetlands:
-
9:18 - 9:19giant anteaters,
-
9:19 - 9:21pampas deer,
-
9:21 - 9:22peccaries
-
9:22 - 9:28and finally, one of the most difficult,
the green-winged macaws, -
9:28 - 9:33who've gone missing
for over 100 years in that ecosystem. -
9:33 - 9:37And today, they're back,
flying free, dispensing seeds, -
9:37 - 9:40playing out their lives as they should be.
-
9:40 - 9:43The capstone of these efforts in Iberá
-
9:43 - 9:47is to return the apex carnivores
to their rightful place. -
9:47 - 9:50Jaguars on the land,
giant otters in the water. -
9:50 - 9:55Several years of trial and error
produced young cubs -
9:55 - 9:58who will be released
-
9:58 - 10:01for the first time in over half a century
-
10:01 - 10:02into Iberá wetlands,
-
10:02 - 10:08and now, the 1.7-million-acre Iberá Park
will provide enough space -
10:08 - 10:13for recovering jaguar populations
with low risk of conflict -
10:13 - 10:15with neighboring ranchers.
-
10:15 - 10:18Our rewilding projects in Chile
-
10:18 - 10:21are gaining ground on low numbers
of several key species -
10:21 - 10:23in the Patagonia region.
-
10:23 - 10:27The huemul deer
that is truly nearly extinct, -
10:27 - 10:28the lesser rheas
-
10:28 - 10:33and building the puma
and fox populations back up. -
10:34 - 10:38You know, the power
of the absent can't help us -
10:40 - 10:43if it just leads to nostalgia or despair.
-
10:45 - 10:46To the contrary,
-
10:47 - 10:50it's only useful if it motivates us
-
10:50 - 10:55toward working to bring back
what's gone missing. -
10:55 - 10:58Of course, the first step in rewilding
-
10:58 - 11:02is to be able to imagine
that it's possible in the first place. -
11:02 - 11:06That wildlife abundance
recorded in journals -
11:06 - 11:10aren't just stories
from some old dusty books. -
11:12 - 11:13Can you imagine that?
-
11:15 - 11:20Do you believe the world
could be more beautiful, -
11:20 - 11:22more equitable?
-
11:23 - 11:25I do.
-
11:25 - 11:26Because I've seen it.
-
11:27 - 11:28Here's an example.
-
11:28 - 11:31When we purchased
one of the largest ranches -
11:31 - 11:34in Chile and Patagonia, in 2004,
-
11:34 - 11:35it looked like this.
-
11:35 - 11:39For a century, this land
had been overgrazed by livestock, -
11:39 - 11:42like most grasslands around the world.
-
11:42 - 11:44Soil erosion was rampant,
-
11:44 - 11:47hundreds of miles of fencing
-
11:47 - 11:53kept wildlife and its flow corralled.
-
11:53 - 11:56And that was with the little
wildlife that was left. -
11:56 - 12:00The local mountain lions and foxes
had been persecuted for decades, -
12:00 - 12:02leaving their numbers very low.
-
12:02 - 12:08Today, those lands are the 763,000-acre
Patagonian National Park, -
12:08 - 12:09and it looks like this.
-
12:09 - 12:12And Arcelio, the former gaucho,
-
12:12 - 12:18whose job was to first find and kill
mountain lions in the years past, -
12:18 - 12:23today is the head tracker
for the park's wildlife team, -
12:23 - 12:28and his story captures the imagination
of people around the world. -
12:28 - 12:30What is possible.
-
12:30 - 12:36I share these thoughts and images with you
not for self-congratulations, -
12:36 - 12:38but to make a simple point
-
12:38 - 12:40and propose an urgent challenge.
-
12:41 - 12:43If the question is survival,
-
12:43 - 12:48survival of life's diversity
and human dignity -
12:48 - 12:51and healthy human communities,
-
12:51 - 12:54then the answer must include
rewilding the Earth. -
12:56 - 12:59As much and as quickly as possible.
-
13:00 - 13:03Everyone has a role to play in this,
-
13:04 - 13:08but especially those of us with privilege,
-
13:08 - 13:12with political power,
-
13:12 - 13:13wealth,
-
13:14 - 13:19where, let's face it,
for better, for worse, -
13:19 - 13:22that's where the chess game
of our future is played out. -
13:24 - 13:26And this gets to the core of the question.
-
13:27 - 13:31Are we prepared to do what it takes
to change the end of this story? -
13:32 - 13:35The changes the world has made
in the past few months -
13:35 - 13:37to stop the spread of COVID-19
-
13:37 - 13:39are so promising to me,
-
13:39 - 13:44because it shows we can join forces
under desperate circumstances. -
13:45 - 13:50What we're going through now
could be a precursor -
13:50 - 13:55to the broader potential damage
as a result of the climate crisis. -
13:57 - 13:58But without warning,
-
13:58 - 14:03globally, we're learning to work together
in ways we could never have imagined. -
14:04 - 14:06Having watched young people
from around the world -
14:06 - 14:09rising up and going out into the streets
-
14:09 - 14:15to remind us of our culpability
and chastising us for our inaction -
14:15 - 14:17are the ones who really inspire me.
-
14:17 - 14:20I know, you've heard all of this before.
-
14:20 - 14:24But if there was ever a moment
to awaken to the reality -
14:24 - 14:28that everything is connected
to everything else, -
14:29 - 14:30it's right now.
-
14:30 - 14:33Every human life
is affected by the actions -
14:33 - 14:37of every other human life
around the globe. -
14:37 - 14:41And the fate of humanity
is tied to the health of the planet. -
14:43 - 14:45We have a common destiny.
-
14:45 - 14:47We can flourish
-
14:47 - 14:48or we can suffer ...
-
14:50 - 14:52But we're going to be doing it together.
-
14:52 - 14:54So here's the truth.
-
14:54 - 14:59We're so far past the point
when individual action is an elective. -
15:00 - 15:03In my opinion, it's a moral imperative
-
15:03 - 15:06that every single one of us
-
15:06 - 15:10steps up to reimagine
our place in the circle of life. -
15:10 - 15:13Not in the center,
but as part of the whole. -
15:14 - 15:15We need to remember
-
15:15 - 15:18that what we do
reflects who we choose to be. -
15:19 - 15:21Let's create a civilization
-
15:21 - 15:25that honors the intrinsic
value of all life. -
15:26 - 15:28No matter who you are,
-
15:28 - 15:31no matter what you have to work with,
-
15:31 - 15:34get out of bed every single morning,
-
15:34 - 15:38and do something that has nothing
to do with yourself, -
15:38 - 15:44but rather having everything to do
with those things you love. -
15:44 - 15:47With those things you know to be true.
-
15:47 - 15:51Be someone who imagines human progress
-
15:51 - 15:54to be something that moves us
toward wholeness. -
15:55 - 15:56Toward health.
-
15:56 - 15:58Toward human dignity.
-
15:59 - 16:01And always,
-
16:01 - 16:03and forever,
-
16:03 - 16:05wild beauty.
-
16:06 - 16:08Thank you.
- Title:
- Let's make the world wild again
- Speaker:
- Kristine Tompkins
- Description:
-
Earth, humanity and nature are inextricably interconnected. To restore us all back to health, we need to "rewild" the world, says environmental activist Kristine Tompkins. Tracing her life from Patagonia CEO to passionate conservationist, she shares how she has helped to establish national parks across millions of acres of land (and sea) in South America -- and discusses the critical role we all have to play to heal the planet. "We have a common destiny," she says. "We can flourish or we can suffer, but we're going to be doing it together."
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 16:22
marialadias edited English subtitles for Let's make the world wild again | ||
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Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for Let's make the world wild again | ||
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Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Let's make the world wild again | ||
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Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for Let's make the world wild again |