Welcome to the world of Douglas Tompkins, a visionary entrepreneur, conservationist, and outdoor enthusiast whose profound insights have left an indelible mark on the realms of business and environmental activism. Douglas Tompkins co-founded iconic outdoor brands such as The North Face and Esprit, yet his legacy extends far beyond the commercial sphere. He dedicated his later years to environmental conservation, passionately advocating for the protection of wilderness areas and biodiversity.
Tompkins believed in the transformative power of nature, viewing it not only as a source of inspiration but also as a critical element of human well-being. His tireless efforts led to the establishment of numerous conservation projects, including vast protected areas in Chile and Argentina. Through his actions and words, Tompkins emphasized the urgent need for society to reevaluate its relationship with the natural world, urging us to prioritize conservation and sustainability for the sake of future generations. Explore the wisdom and foresight of Douglas Tompkins through the following collection of quotes, which encapsulate his profound perspectives on life, nature, and the human experience.
The computer is a mechanism for acceleration: it accelerates economic activity, and this is eating up the world. It’s eating up resources, it’s processing, it’s manufacturing, it’s distributing, it’s consuming. That’s what the computer’s real work does, and it does that 24/7, 365 days a year, non-stop, just to satisfy our own narrow needs. Douglas Tompkins
The Canadian power line is going to industrialize Patagonia, and it is going to discount the one economic card the region has to play, which is the tourism. Douglas Tompkins
I’m short on celebrations and long on getting to work. Douglas Tompkins
It is really your behaviour that determines whether you’re a patriot. Douglas Tompkins
Despite my great disappointment in American foreign policy, I am very proud of the American tradition of wild land conservation. It is the best tradition and example of land conservation in the world. It goes back a long way. Douglas Tompkins
I tell myself to hurry up, that I have to do everything before death catches me. Douglas Tompkins
I don’t think capitalism can survive. Douglas Tompkins
National Parks are the gold standard for conservation. Douglas Tompkins
I’m sort of half-Chilean at this point anyway, half-Argentine. This is where I have been living and working for a long time now. Douglas Tompkins
These parks are our life’s work, not the clothing chains we created, selling people clothes they don’t need. Douglas Tompkins
I don’t want to see anything natural get hurt. Douglas Tompkins
I’m a social justice supporter, but there is no social justice on a dead planet. Douglas Tompkins
Conservation is not without its critics and opposition. There are a lot of special interests that don’t want to see land set aside. Douglas Tompkins
I learned from my parents that you have to get pleasure out of what you’re doing, or don’t do it. Douglas Tompkins
It’s very complicated when you are reorganizing territories under different ministries. We have to get them all together and transfer jurisdictions. It’s a bureaucratic slalom course we have to ski through, but it can be done. Douglas Tompkins
Once we establish an architectural style in each park, we stick with it religiously and comprehensively so that it comes out as a gestalt. Douglas Tompkins
Every single national park had some component of private philanthropy. Douglas Tompkins
Deskilling devices – they make us dumber. We’re immersed in a system that now requires the use of a cell phone just to get around, just to function, and so the logic of that cell phone has been imposed on us. Douglas Tompkins
I don’t have a cell phone because I know how horrible it is. Using your cell phone is like putting your head in a microwave every day. Douglas Tompkins
Capitalism doesn’t function when it starts to contract, and we can see that quite clearly right here in the eurozone. It’s like pushing a giant monster under water that’s gasping for air. It goes nuts. Douglas Tompkins
There’s no doubt whatsoever that there’s no future in capitalism. It’s probably no more than 500 years old, and it’s demonstrating over and over again that it is destroying the world. Douglas Tompkins
I just realized at least what I was doing was making a lot of stuff that nobody needed and pushing a consumerist society. So I went to do something else. Douglas Tompkins
I just feel lucky that I somehow escaped from the confines of the business class… I feel so fortunate that somehow I managed to break out of that world and get to do something that really had more meaning. Douglas Tompkins
National parks are the best expression of social equity that there is. It’s like paying our rent for living on the planet. Douglas Tompkins
If you just hold your cell phone for 30 seconds and think backwards through its production, you have the entire techno-industrial culture wrapped up there. You can’t have that device without everything that goes with it. Douglas Tompkins
Resource efficiency is the wrong metric. We should use nature as the measure, using nature’s wisdom as a template for our economic systems. Douglas Tompkins
Look at how fast technology is developing. Douglas Tompkins
There’s big granite walls up toward the Argentine border, but the weather’s serious, and a lot of the rock is mossy and wet. Douglas Tompkins
If you’re trashing your own country, ruining the soils, contaminating the waters and the air, cutting down trees, overfishing the lakes, rivers and oceans, you’re not much of a patriot. Douglas Tompkins
When we began working on Parque Pumalin, rumours flew that we were establishing a nuclear waste site for the United States or, oddly for Episcopalians, which we both are, setting up a Jewish state. It would be funny if these theories weren’t being taken very seriously. Douglas Tompkins
If you take guys like Exequiel Bustillo, the architect who designed the early park infrastructure in Argentina, or the great American architects, these guys had a vision that thrust the national park idea into the public eye. Douglas Tompkins
Fashion is one of the most intellectually vacuous industries. We had to manufacture desires to get people to buy our products. We were selling people countless things that they didn’t need. Douglas Tompkins
When they’re growing up, if you tell kids God exists, they believe it. It’s the same with the techno-cultural society. They believe in it – that it’s the road to paradise, that there are no limits. Douglas Tompkins
I have even begun to think that I am caring for Argentina and Chile perhaps more than Argentines and Chileans. I feel like I’m sort of a de facto citizen, because I am looking after their national patrimony – which is the land – very carefully. Douglas Tompkins
There are emotional relationships in any business. Douglas Tompkins
We choose the national park idea because it’s really the highest form of protection for landscapes that exists under current law, especially in Chile and Argentina. Douglas Tompkins
If you’re not willing to take the political heat, then you shouldn’t get into the game of land conservation, especially on a large scale. Douglas Tompkins
We need to pay our dues to live on this earth; we need to pay the rent, and I’m doing that with the work we are carrying out here in Patagonia. Douglas Tompkins
If you want to destroy the planet, you can kiss social justice goodbye. The earth comes first. Douglas Tompkins
I feel a strong bond with Chile and Argentina. Douglas Tompkins
Capitalism may have all sorts of things that are good, but ultimately, it’s bad for everyone. Douglas Tompkins
I know all of the antiques stores in Buenos Aires. I’ve been in every one of them, picking things out. Douglas Tompkins
I’ve never, ever tried to make life easy for myself. Douglas Tompkins
People have to free their imaginations and realize everyone can do something, on a large or a small scale, depending on their ability. Those who can do a lot because of their position and potential should jump right in there. Douglas Tompkins
The byproduct of the main thrust to protect the biodiversity of a given place is that you get especially young people out to the parks, because it will be future generations that will have to value these landscapes and these ecosystems and make sure that nobody is changing the law. Douglas Tompkins
As we get sucked more and more into the technosphere, we become less and less capable of understanding it because it becomes a technological milieu that we’re in. Douglas Tompkins