Kris Tompkins, former CEO of Patagonia and president of Tompkins Conservation, joined writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams and filmmaker Chai Vasarhelyi in a conversation connecting academia, art, and spirituality to reckon with the climate crisis.
In fall 2023, HDS writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams brought her reflective, fierce passion for nature into the classroom with another new course. Inspired by A Wild Promise—a beautifully illustrated book by Allen Crawford published in August 2023—Tempest Williams explored how the climate crisis affects living beings beyond humankind. In the forward, she writes: "Our wild promise within the Endangered Species Act to protect and keep safe threatened and critically endangered species from extinction can become vows of action."
ACT I
One of those vows for Tempest Williams was creating a new class at HDS to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. She co-taught the class with Diane Moore, MDiv ’84, HDS’s Associate Dean for Religion and Public Life, and was guided by Geralyn White Dreyfous, AB ’84, an award-winning producer with a remarkable background in the arts. HDS graduate, Lindsay (Iggy Dean) Sandwald, MDiv ’22, served as a teaching fellow who ran weekly salons for students to explore the intersection between art and science through creative expressions. With over 40 students enrolled from HDS and across Harvard, the course focused on the 1,300+ endangered and threatened species in the United States and the 16,306 species threatened worldwide. For their final, each student created an imaginative project about one threatened species to raise awareness about wildlife protection.
“Why here?” Tempest Williams asks. “Why talk about the earth and endangered species and extinction and climate at the Divinity School? Here, we are looking at the earth crisis, climate justice, and issues of race and peace by understanding that this is all one issue. Yes, it's a political issue. Yes, it’s an ecological issue. But we at the Divinity School also understand that this is a spiritual issue.”
Acknowledging students who joined the “Wild Promise” course from across Harvard—representing fields such as business, design, education, government, law, public health, and more—she goes on to say, “This is why we are really here—because of these future leaders. I have been moved by their depth and by their hearts.” Tempest Williams offers this thesis statement for the new course: “We can change the ending of this story of extinction if we recognize there is something deeper than hope.”
ACT II
In mid-November, the co-instructors for “A Wild Promise” held a screening of WILD LIFE for Harvard community members in partnership with The Constellation Project. The story, about conservationist Kris Tompkins (created by Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin) is a film punctuated by devotion, devastation, and determination.
National Geographic describes the film: “From Oscar-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, WILD LIFE follows conservationist Kris Tompkins on an epic, decades-spanning love story as wild as the landscapes she dedicated her life to protecting. After falling in love in mid-life, Kris and the outdoorsman and entrepreneur Doug Tompkins left behind the world of the massively successful outdoor brands they'd helped pioneer—Patagonia, The North Face, and Esprit—and turned their attention to a visionary effort to create National Parks throughout Chile and Argentina. WILD LIFE chronicles the highs and lows of their journey to effect the largest private land donation in history.”
The public screening drew over 200 registrants, including HDS leadership, students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends of the School. Noting that Kris Tompkins and her late husband Doug dedicated their conservation efforts “on behalf of a beautiful, broken world,” Tempest Williams shared her appreciation for their vision of conservation in the twentieth and twenty-first century. She said their work demonstrates true inclusivity by “garnering governments, local people, indigenous people, scientists, farmers, and visionaries” for preservation of lands at the national and international scope.
In opening remarks, Tempest Williams took a moment to share her deep respect and affection for both Tompkins and Vasarhelyi. “I do not know two stronger women…fierce, smart, strategic, and fearless women that I honor and bow to,” she said with emotion resonating in her voice. Tempest Williams also shared her admiration for Tompkins's “engaged spirituality” and “devotion to wildness,” as well as Vasarhelyi’s “razor-sharp perception” that shows us what it means to be human with “muscular stories that transform fear into triumph.”
Taking the stage, Vasarhelyi introduced the film by describing her original focus on political films and how she pivoted to examining individuals who defy expectations and limits—intrinsically human stories that highlight humans with “audacious dreams” who also “put in the grit and work to make it happen.” She credits this pivot with marrying an “alpinist,” Chin, who also introduced her to the Tompkins. Vasarhelyi explained to the audience that she was skeptical when Chin first pitched a movie idea about his mentors, noting that she did not originally see the hook and had never told a story about someone who had passed away. (Doug Tompkins tragically died of hypothermia in 2015 in a sea kayaking accident.) But the more Vasarhelyi and Chin discussed the idea, the more she began to see the critical need to tell Kris Tompkins's story as a “steward for humanity” with her “monumental conservation work” that continued in the wake of losing her beloved husband.
While the film documents the historic preservation of natural land across South America—and the many complexities involved in doing so—the film is also a tender story that celebrates love, reckons with loss, and honors the power of community.
After the screening, the guests of honor took the stage with both Tempest Williams and Dreyfous for a Q&A with the audience. Topics ranged from navigating grief, dealing with sexism in different fields, exploring the intricacies of preserving and/or building back biodiversity, and understanding the role hope can play when facing the climate crisis.
As the Q&A concluded, Tompkins offered these words as both encouragement and a call to action: “I get asked a lot about hope, and I've come to dislike the context…Everybody says ‘hope’ as if you have it, then you’re going to feel better about things, but I think you have to work for hope. You have to deserve having hope.” Referring to an earlier comment about being a child of the 60s and 70s, she continued by speaking more directly to the students in the room: “You have to decide at a much younger age today, than we had to, that your future matters—you're gonna have to take up the charge to defend the right to a beautiful, healthy, dignified future for all life. And that's how it goes.”
Tompkins Conservation At a Glance:
About
For three decades, the Tompkins Conservation team has been committed to working on the ground in the Southern Cone of South America to confront the twin crises facing life on Earth: climate chaos and mass extinction. From northern Argentina to southern Chile, they are preserving land and sea, restoring biodiversity, and helping communities to thrive.
Origin Story
Douglas Tompkins, Founder and Benefactor (1989–2015)
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, Cofounder (1994–present) and President
The visionary force behind Tompkins Conservation, Douglas Tompkins (1943-2015) co-founded The North Face and Esprit before leaving the business world in 1990 to dedicate his life to environmental activism and funding conservation. His first endeavor was saving temperate rainforest in Chilean Patagonia, where he was soon joined by the longtime CEO of Patagonia, Kristine McDivitt. They married and together have joined the ranks of the most successful conservation philanthropists in history, inspiring others to join in their mission. Beyond creating national parks and rewilding, Tompkins Conservation has spearheaded environmental campaigns, supported activism, engaged in regenerative agriculture, and published books on environmental topics. In 2015, a tragic kayaking accident took Doug’s life. Kristine continues to expand their initiatives as president of Tompkins Conservation. She is also a former UN Environment Patron of Protected Areas.
To learn more, visit: https://www.tompkinsconservation.org.
—by Amie Montemurro