Doug Tompkins: Technology & Nature/Clash of Concepts

Douglass Tompkins was one of 45 leading scholars, authors and activists who convened at The Great Hall of Cooper Union, New York City, on October 25-26, 2014, for the public presentation: "Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth." Speakers discussed the profound impacts—environmental, economic and social—of runaway technological expansionism and cyber immersion; the tendency to see technology as the savior for all problems. For more info, see http://ifg.org/techno-utopia/program/ .

Doug Tompkins is longtime wilderness advocate, mountaineer, organic farmer, activist, and philanthropist. He grew up in Millbrook, New York but headed west at 17 to ski race and climb. In 1964, he founded The North Face to make and sell outdoor equipment. A few years later, he headed south on a road trip to Patagonia to climb Mt. Fitzroy, surfing, skiing, and climbing along the way, an adventure documented in the film Mountain of Storms. Upon returning, he co-founded Esprit clothing company with his first wife, Susie. Under their leadership, Esprit grew into a multinational company with over $1 billion in sales. In the late 1980s, he became increasingly interested in environmental activism (and disenchanted with promoting a consumer culture), leading him to sell his share of Esprit. He created the Foundation for Deep Ecology, and soon afterwards moved to south Chile to focus on conservation. Since moving to South America in 1990, he has worked to create large-scale protected areas in Chile and Argentina. Tompkins has supported activist groups in North and South America, and he has helped produce numerous campaign-related books on topics such as industrial forestry, factory farming, and coal mining.