MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Tompkins widow plans to hand over thousands of acres to create national parks in Patagonia
The widow of American conservationist Doug Tompkins, who died last month while kayaking in South America's Patagonia region, says she'll build on her husband's legacy of protecting threatened ecosystems in Argentina and Chile. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesTompkins died because he acted in his usual arrogant manner. And for someone who liked to consider himself an “experienced kayaker” that arrogance showed up as suicidal stupidity. The investigation into his death has turned up the details: the kayak outing was done contrary to the law and against the requirements specified by the Chilean Navy, which controls that lake. Tompkins was on the lake (glacier-fed, water temps about 3 degrees C) with no immersion suit, and not even wearing a flotation device as required by law, on a part of the lake that regularly gets 100 km/hr winds. But hey, when you're Doug Tompkins, the law is optional. His group didn't even have the required GPS with them, nor the number for the lake search and rescue authority for use with their satellite phone, and blew off the requirement to do a mandatory check-in with the authorities. So yes, it was basically suicide.
Jan 25th, 2016 - 12:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Bad idea to gift it back to the State.
Jan 25th, 2016 - 01:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0They'll just end up selling it to their cronies when they get the chance.
#1 Still whining about Tompkins ! Get a job, a hobby, a woman. Whatever, or just shoot yourself and get it over with. Victim as usual. At least he did SOMETHING besides just sitting around ranting about others.
Jan 25th, 2016 - 02:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Victim? When you do something monumentally stupid, it's hard to consider the result being a victim. More of a consequence of one's behaviour and actions. There is perhaps something to be learned from the results of such folly.
Jan 25th, 2016 - 03:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Time for some 3d seismic and test drilling - just to evaluate the geologic strata for documentary purposes.
Jan 25th, 2016 - 05:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Mami has fucked the economy of Chile since she returned and IF it were that OIL is found there she would be sure to rape the land in a blink of an eye.
Jan 25th, 2016 - 06:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@6 Well, there has been some oil produced in the Magallanes region of Chile, but production has been declining in recent years.
Jan 25th, 2016 - 07:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As far as finding petroleum in the Aysén region (ref @5) -- there is not much chance of that. And what is more, the local residents much prefer to cut down the forests and burn wet wood, which has helped to make the regional capital the most polluted place in the entire country during the long winters. Now, they could have gotten aboard the projects that would have provided them with cheaper electricity and cleaner, healthier living conditions. But Tompkins threw his obscene wealth into the efforts to prevent cheap electricity from becoming available there. That's what we like about 'muricans.
Lol.
Jan 25th, 2016 - 07:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There is more beneath the surface than oil/gas.
What an example of a man. He probably did not want to die in bed and kept doing what he liked, the way he liked.
Jan 26th, 2016 - 02:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0Doug Tompkins' contributions to Chile and Argentina--indeed, to humankind--are probably among the best uses money can have.
Agree with hurricane at #3: those with petty thoughts crawling at ground level will never understand people such as Tompkins.
@9 - Yes, swindling people out of their land with an army of shyster lawyers, throwing people off the land where they had worked for sometimes generations, flying your own fleet of airplanes and pretending to preach “deep ecology.” Blocking road construction so that the chilenos in Aysén would remain cut off from the rest of the country. Hiring people to cleanse the property of the baguales, the wild horses that had been there for over 100 years, and sending them off to slaughter. Using your fortune to interfere with local government and politics and working against opportunities for improving the health of residents, all the while enjoying tax-evasion status. These are the things that run in the best tradition of colonising Americans, and what should make Reeky happy.
Jan 26th, 2016 - 07:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0(9) Estimado Sr. Enrique Massot
Jan 26th, 2016 - 09:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Busy times here in western Chubut... but not so busy not to remember a man like Tompkins...
Vivió y murió en su ley... y su ley era de una altísima etica...
Just a pair of rectifications about the tendentious & false information spread about my backyard by that low crawling Engrish Turnip Ex-Pat at (10)...
He is referring to Valle Chacabuco....
A nice valley in between two pristine Patagonian mountain ranges that the Pinochet regime expropiated from the locals (After torturing and murdering some of them) and sold to foreign absentee landlords that during decades over-exploited the area and the locals as much as they fancied...
Then came that crazy beautifull pair of Yankis..., kicked out them Belgian owners by paying them their asked price..., employed almost all the old estancia's personnel and many others in their “Parque Patagonia” proyect and donated it to the state...
Enjoy...:
http://www.patagoniapark.org
@11 No, I was not referring to Valle Chacabuco.
Jan 27th, 2016 - 12:31 am - Link - Report abuse 0But you went on blithely displaying your ignorance by describing an unrelated issue, thinking no one would notice. And you have revealed that characteristic ignorance of these matters one more time.
You might as well refer us to CKF's website and expect us to accept her explanations for the Falkands and economics. ( The “patagoniapark” site you pointed to is one of the Tompkins propaganda websites. )
Your capacity for boludeces knows no limits.
#11 Think
Jan 27th, 2016 - 09:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Thanks. I have so many good souvenirs of beautiful Chubut, from Esquel to el Bolsón to Valdez peninsula. Hope you enjoy living there.
The importance of the gifts to humankind that the Tompkins have made are beyond discussion, however those who are philosophically against that sort of projects will never fail to find “la quinta pata al gato,” real or fictitious, to dismiss the whole thing.
(13) Mr. Enrique Massot
Jan 27th, 2016 - 11:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Je vous en prie...
And yes..., I do enjoy it here very much, thanks...
Canada would make a nice park reserve for a couple of months a year . . . . . but you'd need to do something about all those pale canadites wondering around aimlessly - they'd scare the wildlife.
Jan 28th, 2016 - 12:03 am - Link - Report abuse 0Mmmmm....Think and I must be within miles of one another as I type this.
Jan 28th, 2016 - 11:53 am - Link - Report abuse 0Mmmmm....Poppy and I must be within miles of one another when I visit the Wyoming Winds.
Jan 28th, 2016 - 06:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If you say so that. Thought I thought you were in the Bariloche area. Perhaps I am wrong, no skin off my ass.
Jan 28th, 2016 - 07:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0South Western Chubut (me backyard) is some 500 miles south of North Western Rio Negro (Bariloche)...
Jan 28th, 2016 - 08:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Abh....I. remember now. But hardly 2200 miles like Wyoming to massachusetts. Anyway beautiful area....Nahuel Huapi
Jan 28th, 2016 - 09:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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