GREEN CAPITALI$M

Patagonia lobs ESG breakup calls back to the wild

Antony Currie Reuters
PUBLISHEDSEP 16, 2022


MELBOURNE (Reuters Breakingviews) - If there were more Yvon Chouinards, humans might be doing a better job of battling global warming. Such sentiments are doing the rounds on social media since the founder of Patagonia revealed https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/

on Wednesday that he has ceded control of his outdoor clothing firm. His motive: to direct the earnings generated by what will remain a for-profit company into a charity fighting climate and environmental risks that will own virtually all Patagonia’s shares. Yet he could have built a bigger war chest more quickly by selling the company. That he didn’t is an apt riposte to breaking up ESG.

The idea of separating environmental, social and governance concerns from each other has been gaining traction https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?

It has some appeal: around $17 trillion in assets, per the U.S. Sustainable Investment Forum, sit in funds run by managers from BlackRock to AllianceBernstein that claim to include ESG considerations in their investment decisions. Yet often they aren’t clear about the relative importance of each of the three, creating consternation and confusion. A climate-focused ESG fund probably should own Tesla, for example, whereas one prioritising social or governance performance would have a tough time justifying the investment.

In practice, all three should form an integral part of a fund manager’s overall analysis. Not only do they interact with one another, excluding or downplaying one type of performance could result in plenty of risks and opportunities being overlooked.

Forcing companies to pick between the three concepts would also create unnecessary dilemmas. Chouinard, for example, wants to steer more money towards protecting the planet. By handing virtually all shares over to a charitable trust, though, he’s limiting his contribution to the firm’s annual earnings of some $100 million a year, per the New York Times https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?

But Patagonia has a strong brand and a roughly 10% profit margin that beats publicly traded apparel companies like Abercrombie & Fitch. So he ought to be able to sell it at a handy premium to the roughly 13 times trailing earnings A&F commands. At, say, a 20 times multiple, he’d have some $2 billion to deploy.

That, though, would risk selling the company to those who might not defend either the company’s environmentally friendly culture or its employees. His unusual solution is one few are likely to replicate. But behind it is a more responsible approach to managing a business than forcing ESG issues into unneeded siloes.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Yvon Chouinard has ceded control of outdoor clothing brand Patagonia, the founder disclosed in a letter on Sept. 14. As a result, all company profit will go to a non-profit entity which will spend it to fight climate change.

As part of the deal, Chouinard and his family have transferred all stock with voting rights to the Patagonia Purpose Trust. Overseen by family members and their advisers, according to the New York Times, the trust will be responsible for approving key decisions like choosing the board of directors.

All non-voting stock, which represents the vast majority of shares, has been given to the Holdfast Collective, which Chouinard calls "a nonprofit dedicated to fighting the environmental crisis and defending nature".

Patagonia has annual revenue in excess of $1 billion and profit of some $100 million, the New York Times reported on Sept. 14.

(Editing by Robyn Mak and Thomas Shum)

'Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder': Founder Gives Away Patagonia to Save the Planet

"Hopefully this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn't end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people," said Yvon Chouinard. "We are going to give away the maximum amount of money to people who are actively working on saving this planet."

"We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company's values intact," Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard wrote in a letter explaining his family's ownership decision. (Photo: Patagonia/Facebook)

JESSICA CORBETT

September 14, 2022

Patagonia founder and "reluctant billionaire" Yvon Chouinard just raised the bar for corporate action on the fossil fuel-driven planetary emergency.

"Instead of 'going public,' you could say we're 'going purpose.'"

The 83-year-old, his wife Malinda, and their adult children, Fletcher and Claire, gave away the company, valued at about $3 billion. The rock climber-turned-businessman explained the decision in an interview published Wednesday by The New York Times, along with a letter on the outdoor clothing retailer's website.

"While we're doing our best to address the environmental crisis, it's not enough. We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company's values intact," Chouinard wrote. "One option was to sell Patagonia and donate all the money. But we couldn't be sure a new owner would maintain our values or keep our team of people around the world employed."

"Another path was to take the company public. What a disaster that would have been. Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility," he continued. "Truth be told, there were no good options available. So, we created our own."

As the Times detailed:

In August, the family irrevocably transferred all the company's voting stock, equivalent to 2% of the overall shares, into a newly established entity known as the Patagonia Purpose Trust.

The trust, which will be overseen by members of the family and their closest advisers, is intended to ensure that Patagonia makes good on its commitment to run a socially responsible business and give away its profits. Because the Chouinards donated their shares to a trust, the family will pay about $17.5 million in taxes on the gift.

The Chouinards then donated the other 98% of Patagonia, its common shares, to a newly established nonprofit organization called the Holdfast Collective, which will now be the recipient of all the company's profits and use the funds to combat climate change. Because the Holdfast Collective is a 501(c)(4), which allows it to make unlimited political contributions, the family received no tax benefit for its donation.

The newspaper noted that "Patagonia has already donated $50 million to the Holdfast Collective, and expects to contribute another $100 million this year, making the new organization a major player in climate philanthropy."

Chouinard told the Times that "I didn't know what to do with the company because I didn't ever want a company," and called the plan an "ideal solution" for his family.

"I don't respect the stock market at all," he explained. "Once you're public, you've lost control over the company, and you have to maximize profits for the shareholder, and then you become one of these irresponsible companies."

As he put it in the letter: "Instead of 'going public,' you could say we're 'going purpose.' Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we'll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth."

It was important to Chouinard's children "that they were not seen as the financial beneficiaries," he told the Times. "They really embody this notion that every billionaire is a policy failure."

"I was in Forbes magazine listed as a billionaire, which really, really pissed me off," he recalled. "I don't have $1 billion in the bank. I don't drive Lexuses."

The family's move was welcomed by climate action and conservation advocates.

"Wow," tweeted Fossil Free Media director Jamie Henn. "Patagonia has long been an incredible ally in the fight for climate justice—they've offered their stores, funding, and advertising for mobilizations and more—but this takes it to a whole new level. Kudos to the entire team."

"The world really can be different friends."

Marine biologist and policy expert Ayana Elizabeth Johnson said she "could not be more proud to serve on the board of directors" of Patagonia, and celebrated that "as of now, Earth is our only shareholder—ALL profits, in perpetuity, will go to our mission to 'save our home planet.'"

Chouinard suggested the innovative approach could inspire action from others in the business world.

"Hopefully this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn't end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people," he said. "We are going to give away the maximum amount of money to people who are actively working on saving this planet."

Supporters agreed. Congresswoman Marie Newman (D-Ill.) simply tweeted: "More please."

As poet Amanda Gorman pointed out Wednesday, "The world really can be different friends."

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Patagonia founder gives company away to environmental trusts
By The Associated Press

 Yvon Chouinard, the founder and chairman of Ventura-based Patagonia Inc., is photographed Sept 28, 2005, in the original Chouinard Equipment blacksmith shop located in Ventura, Calif., where he once forged pitons for mountaineers. In a letter posted on the privately-held company's website on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, Chouinard said the 50-year-old company would transfer 100% of the its voting stock to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and and 100% of its nonvoting stock had been given to the Holdfast Collective. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, File)

The founder of outdoor gear company Patagonia, long known for environmental activism, says the company is transferring all of its voting shares into a trust “dedicated to fighting the environmental crisis and defending nature.”

In a letter posted on the privately-held company’s website on Wednesday night, founder Yvon Chouinard said the 50-year-old company would transfer 100% of the its voting stock to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and and 100% of its nonvoting stock had been given to the Holdfast Collective.

Each year after reinvesting profits back into the company, Chouinard said remaining funds will be distributed as a dividend to the trusts in their ongoing efforts to fight the climate crisis.

Chouinard said the other options for the Ventura, California company to dedicate itself to protecting the planet — selling the company and donating the proceeds; or taking the company public — were not viable for Patagonia’s ultimate goals.

“Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth,” Chouinard wrote.

Patagonia makes outdoor clothing, gear and accessories for everything from skiing to climbing and camping.

Chouinard said he “never wanted to be a businessman,” and started Patagonia as a craftsman, making climbing gear for himself and his friends.

Patagonia founder hands over company in bold move to fight climate change
"I am dead serious about saving this planet," he said.

"Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth, we are using the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source," founder Yvon Choulnard said.

 File Photo by longtaildog/Shutterstock

Sept. 15 (UPI) -- The founder of popular outdoor retailer Patagonia says he's turned over total control of the company, which is worth roughly $3 billion, to two environmental non-profits for their fight against climate change.

Founder Yvon Chouinard announced the move in a letter posted to the Patagonia website late on Wednesday. Choulnard founded the outdoor gear company 50 years ago and has always been environmentally conscious.

"Earth is now our only shareholder," Chouinard said in a statement.

"It's been a half-century since we began our experiment in responsible business. If we have any hope of a thriving planet 50 years from now, it demands all of us doing all we can with the resources we have."

The Chouinard family has transferred the company to non-profits Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective. The company said every dollar that's not reinvested will be distributed as dividends to protect the planet.

"As the business leader I never wanted to be, I am doing my part," Chouinard added. "Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth, we are using the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source.

"I am dead serious about saving this planet."

Yvon Chouinard, the 83-year-old founder of Patagonia, says he decided to hand over the outdoor retailer to help in the global climate crisis. 

Photo courtesy Campbell Brewer/Patagonia

The Patagonia Purpose Trust now owns all of Patagonia's voting stock and 2% of total shares. It was founded to create a more permanent legal structure to enshrine the company's purpose and values.

The Holdfast Collective, on the other hand, now owns all of Patagonia's non-voting stock, which amounts to 98% of all shares. It said that all revenue will go toward protecting nature and biodiversity, supporting thriving communities and fighting the climate crisis.

"Two years ago, the Chouinard family challenged a few of us to develop a new structure with two central goals," Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert said in a statement. "They wanted us to both protect the purpose of the business and immediately and perpetually release more funding to fight the environmental crisis

"We believe this new structure delivers on both and we hope it will inspire a new way of doing business that puts people and planet first."

Patagonia Chair: ‘We are turning capitalism on its head by making the Earth our only shareholder’

BYCHARLES CONN
September 14, 2022 

Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia founder.
AL SEIB / GETTY IMAGES

For 50 years there has been an impassioned debate about the appropriate aims and responsibilities of companies. Some side with Milton Friedman’s influential viewpoint, asserting that the only responsibility of business is to generate profits for shareholders. Others believe companies have broader responsibilities to society and the environment. Lately, even state legislatures have weighed in, proposing to ban financial managers who take ESG criteria into account. But while the battle of words continues, investors, customers, employees, and the public have moved forward. The question now is not whether but how far the pendulum has shifted towards responsibility and purpose. Surveys show that most investors believe ESG goals should trump short-term profit, and more than ever, employees and consumers are choosing companies based on what they stand for.

Great companies are loved and respected for their values and commitments to their communities in addition to what they make, not for the creation of shareholder wealth. This year Patagonia was named in the top group of most reputable companies based on criteria such as product quality, trust, citizenship, and ethics. So was Chick-fil-A. You couldn’t find two companies with more divergent values, but both have a clear purpose that extends beyond generating profits. They stand for something that people understand. Our most loved companies are already purpose-led organizations.

As a tech entrepreneur, public company CEO, and investor, I have benefited from shareholder capitalism. It’s a system that has brought us reductions in absolute poverty, longer lives through medical innovation, and many other improvements, as well as great shareholder returns. But let’s be honest: it made its gains at an enormous cost, including increasing inequality and widescale uncompensated environmental damage. We have subsidized buoyant shareholder returns by fraying the fabric of our societies and using up the planet we live on. We all know this is happening—the world is literally on fire.

Even Big Business knows the narrow extractive model of shareholder capitalism does not serve us. Leading institutions like The Business Roundtable and the World Economic Forum have worked to re-brand shareholder capitalism as stakeholder capitalism, adding responsibilities to workers, the environment, and society. Their investors demand this shift. But while this new moniker sounds good, to date actions haven’t caught up to words. The flowery language of annual reports is simply incompatible with standard forms of incorporation that require companies to only maximize shareholder returns.

Recently, a more concrete movement around company responsibility has gained momentum, the Benefit Corporation, which is a form of incorporation that puts people, environmental, and governance aims alongside profit inside company legal charters and requires specific goals and improvement over time. Similar efforts by accounting bodies and think tanks seek to develop general accounting standards for measuring companies’ social and environmental impacts that could be required for future company reporting. These two innovations are much more substantial progress toward making companies responsible players in building sustainable, prosperous societies.

At Patagonia, we signed up as a Benefit Company early on–and it has helped us clarify our responsibilities. For us, this means constantly measuring and managing our environmental footprint, seeking to reduce our use of water, carbon, and dangerous chemicals in our clothing. We invest in regenerative organic agriculture and in the circular economy by using recycled fabrics and repairing and re-selling used clothing. We price our products to reflect their real costs. We unapologetically support climate and environmental activism. And we transparently report our progress to our communities. We have used purpose capitalism to create a successful company that is committed to minimizing environmental impact and being a positive force in society.

A few years ago, we changed our mission to something both simple and hard: We’re in business to save our home planet. This clear definition of purpose is beyond any stretch goal. It has forced us to go much deeper into what it will take to have zero negative environmental impact while still making great products for our outdoor athlete customers.

Now in our 50th year, we’re going further still. Our founder Yvon Chouinard and his family have given all their Patagonia equity to a charitable entity to fund environmental conservation. We are directing all the value created by the company to specific conservation projects and advocacy. Instead of exploiting natural resources to make shareholder returns, we are turning shareholder capitalism on its head by making the Earth our only shareholder.

As a closely held company, this huge change was easier for us than others. But the point is for companies to make transparent purpose commitments that make sense to their business, and to be held to account by their communities.

Companies have responsibilities to their workers, customers, the environment, and yes, their investors. Shareholder capitalism advocates think goals other than profit will confuse investors. Nonsense. Investors already look to many company attributes when allocating capital. Over time, the market will continue to work and responsible purpose-led companies will attract more investment, better employees, and deeper customer loyalty. This is not “woke” capitalism. It’s the future of business if we want to build a better world for our children and all other creatures.


Charles Conn is the chair of Patagonia.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

Fossils reveal dinosaurs of prehistoric Patagonia

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

 

IMAGE: A TIME-AVERAGED ARTIST’S INTERPRETATION OF PATAGONIA DURING THE LATE CRETACEOUS. THE ANIMALS PICTURED INCLUDE NON-AVIAN DINOSAURS, BIRDS AND OTHER VERTEBRATES THAT HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED IN THE FOSSIL RECORD OF THE REGION. THEIR SPECIFIC IDENTIFICATIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS: ORNITHURINE BIRDS (FLYING AND WALKING ON THE GROUND), STEGOUROS (ARMORED DINOSAUR), ORRETHERIUM (MAMMAL), YAMINUECHELYS (TURTLE), A MEGARAPTORID (LARGE CARNIVORE), UNENLAGIINES (PAIR OF CARNIVORES), AND ENANTIORNITHINE BIRDS (IN FOREGROUND) view more 

CREDIT: MAURICIO ALVAREZ AND GABRIEL DIAZ

A study led by The University of Texas at Austin is providing a glimpse into dinosaur and bird diversity in Patagonia during the Late Cretaceous, just before the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.

The fossils represent the first record of theropods — a dinosaur group that includes both modern birds and their closest non-avian dinosaur relatives — from the Chilean portion of Patagonia. The researchers’ finds include giant megaraptors with large sickle-like claws and birds from the group that also includes today’s modern species.

“The fauna of Patagonia leading up to the mass extinction was really diverse,” said lead author Sarah Davis, who completed this work as part of her doctoral studies with Professor Julia Clarke at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences Department of Geological Sciences. “You’ve got your large theropod carnivores and smaller carnivores as well as these bird groups coexisting alongside other reptiles and small mammals.”

The study was published in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences.

Since 2017, members of the Clarke lab, including graduate and undergraduate students, have joined scientific collaborators from Chile in Patagonia to collect fossils and build a record of ancient life from the region. Over the years, researchers have found abundant plant and animal fossils from before the asteroid strike that killed off the dinosaurs.

The study focuses specifically on theropods, with the fossils dating from 66 to 75 million years ago.

Non-avian theropod dinosaurs were mostly carnivorous, and include the top predators in the food chain. This study shows that in prehistoric Patagonia, these predators included dinosaurs from two groups — megaraptors and unenlagiines.

Reaching over 25 feet long, megaraptors were among the larger theropod dinosaurs in South America during the Late Cretaceous. The unenlagiines — a group with members that ranged from chicken-sized to over 10 feet tall — were probably covered with feathers, just like their close relative the velociraptor. The unenlagiinae fossils described in the study are the southernmost known instance of this dinosaur group.

The bird fossils were also from two groups — enantiornithines and ornithurines. Although now extinct, enantiornithines were the most diverse and abundant birds millions of years ago. These resembled sparrows — but with beaks lined with teeth. The group ornithurae includes all modern birds living today. The ones living in ancient Patagonia may have resembled a goose or duck, though the fossils are too fragmentary to tell for sure.

The researchers identified the theropods from small fossil fragments; the dinosaurs mostly from teeth and toes, the birds from small bone pieces. Davis said that the enamel glinting on the dinosaur teeth helped with spotting them among the rocky terrain.

Some researchers have suggested that the Southern Hemisphere faced less extreme or more gradual climatic changes than the Northern Hemisphere after the asteroid strike. This may have made Patagonia, and other places in the Southern Hemisphere, a refuge for birds and mammals and other life that survived the extinction. Davis said that this study can aid in investigating this theory by building up a record of ancient life before and after the extinction event.

Study co-author Marcelo Leppe, the director of the Antarctic Institute of Chile, said that these past records are key to understanding life as it exists today.

“We still need to know how life made its way in that apocalyptic scenario and gave rise to our southern environments in South America, New Zealand and Australia,” he said. “Here theropods are still present — no longer as dinosaurs as imposing as megaraptorids — but as the diverse array of birds found in the forests, swamps and marshes of Patagonia, and in Antarctica and Australia.”

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Agency for Research and Development of Chile, and the Jackson School of Geosciences.

The study’s co-authors include Clarke and researchers at the University of Chile, Major University, the University of Concepción and the Chilean National Museum of Natural History.

A figure from the study showing teeth from a megaraptor dinosaur from various view points. The black tooth preserves most of the tooth crow. The tan tooth is missing the crown apex and base.

CREDIT

Davis et al.

The researchers in Patagonia in 2017. Lead author Sarah Davis is in the center of the front row in a blue jacket. The researchers include members from the Jackson School of Geosciences, INACH, the University of Chile, and the University of Concepción.

CREDIT

Sarah Davis

---

JOURNAL

Journal of South American Earth Sciences

DOI

10.1016/j.jsames.2022.104163 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

New records of Theropoda from a Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) locality in the Magallanes-Austral Basin, Patagonia, and insights into end Cretaceous theropod diversity

Patagonia boycotts Wyoming ski resort over owners’ GOP event

By MEAD GRUVER

August 19, 2021

In this Aug. 5, 2021, photo Nikki Kaufman takes a photo of a fellow demonstrator while protesting Jackson Hole Mountain Resort owner Jay Kemmerer's decision to co-host a fundraiser for the House Freedom Fund near Jackson, Wyo. Kaufman and others have called on others to think critically about their ski pass purchases. The outdoor gear and clothing company Patagonia has stopped providing its merchandise for sale at a Wyoming ski resort to protest the owners' sponsorship of a Republican fundraiser featuring Marjorie Taylor Greene and other core supporters of former President Donald Trump. (Meg Potter/Jackson Hole News & Guide via AP)


CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The outdoor gear and clothing company Patagonia has stopped providing its merchandise for sale at a Wyoming ski resort to protest the owners’ sponsorship of a Republican fundraiser featuring Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and other top supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Well known for decades for its outspoken support of progressive causes and environmentalism, Patagonia in the past has brought unwanted attention to Facebook and Instagram and the Outdoor Retailer shows in Salt Lake City.

Now, the company’s activism could spell trouble — among left-leaning skiers at least — for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. A major tourism destination in Wyoming, the resort known for its bright red gondola car and logo with a silhouetted bucking horse and rider is among the best-known brands from one of the most Republican states.

“We join with the local community that is using its voice in protest. We will continue to use our business to advocate for stronger policies to protect our planet, end hate speech and support voting rights and a strong democracy,” Patagonia spokeswoman Corley Kenna said in a statement Wednesday.

The boycott, first reported by WyoFile, means Patagonia merchandise won’t be available in three shops at the resort which Kenna said were Patagonia’s largest account in Jackson Hole.


This Aug. 18, 2021 shows the Jackson Hole Resort Store downtown Jackson, Wyo. The outdoor clothing and gear company Patagonia has decided to quit supplying Jackson Hole Mountain Resort with its products, fallout from the resort owner Jay Kemmerer's support of the House Freedom Caucus. The resort, which is Patagonia's largest single customer in the Jackson Hole area, operates retail stores in Teton Village and the town of Jackson. The outdoor gear and clothing company Patagonia has stopped providing its merchandise for sale at a Wyoming ski resort to protest the owners' sponsorship of a Republican fundraiser featuring Marjorie Taylor Greene and other core supporters of former President Donald Trump. (Bradly J. Boner/Jackson Hole News & Guide via AP)

Resort owners Jay and Karen Kemmerer cosponsored the Aug. 5 GOP fundraiser in Jackson Hole featuring Greene, a Georgia congresswoman suspended from Twitter over allegedly spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Greene called the suspension a “Communist-style” attack.

Also there were Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, and Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff. Admission started at $2,000 per couple.

The event drew a small group of curbside protesters, some with signs that read “Hey JHMR, your Greene washing is showing” and “JHMR passes fund treason?”

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has been a ski industry leader in recycling and reducing energy use and will continue to offer “world-class brands” in its stores, President Mary Kate Buckley said in a statement Thursday.

“We are proud to be the largest mountain resort operating on 100% wind today. We will remain focused on operating a world-class mountain resort and protecting the health and safety of our guests and employees,” Buckley said.

Ventura, California-based Patagonia would reconsider its boycott if the resort owners demonstrated “a commitment to a healthy planet and healthy communities,” Kenna said Thursday.

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is in Teton County, one of just two Wyoming counties that preferred Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 election. Biden won Teton County with 67% of the vote; Trump won the state with 70%.

Teton County also is home to Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. Trump has vowed to help defeat Liz Cheney in 2022 for voting to impeach him for his role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.

Two ways to think about Patagonia’s $3 billion climate donation

Is it a groundbreaking philanthropic move, or a way to avoid taxes?

Budrul Chukrut / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images


John McCracken

GRIST
Published Sep 20, 2022

When Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard announced last week that he and family members were giving away the company to use its profits to fight climate change, the move was hailed as historic and remarkable by philanthropic experts.

The outdoor retailer, with a history of sustainability and environmental efforts, once told people to “think twice” before buying one of its iconic jackets. Now, in the wake of their decision to give away the company, some observers are in fact thinking twice — about whether the giveaway is actually that groundbreaking.

According to some legal experts, it’s a typical tax move.

Chouinard, his wife, and their two adult children transferred all of the company’s voting stock, or 2 percent of all shares, to the newly created Patagonia Purpose Trust, as first reported by the New York Times. The rest of the company’s stock has been transferred to a newly created social welfare organization, the Holdfast Collective, which will inject a projected $100 million a year into environmental nonprofits and political organizations. Patagonia Purpose Trust will oversee this mission and company operations. The giveaway was valued at roughly $3 billion and did not merit a charitable deduction, with the family paying $17.5 million in taxes on the donation to the trust.

While this move is groundbreaking in the philanthropic world, New York University law professor Daniel Hemel told Quartz that the giveaway allowed the family to reap the benefits of a commonly used tax law maneuver used by philanthropists. The Chouinard family paid more than $17 million in taxes when all was said and done, however, Hemel noted that the payment is a small percentage of the donation made, and the way the trusts and ruling organizations played out still allowed the family to call the shots on both the business and its future charitable contributions.

The Chouinard family’s gift has been compared to a recent move by conservative billionaire Barre Seid, who sold his entire company to the tune of $1.6 billion to fund right-wing political actions. When the New York Times reported on Seid, his transaction was noted to be shaded in dark money, while Patagonia’s was historic, despite both billionaires funneling money into 501c4 organizations. Hemel called out this juxtaposition both on Twitter and in his recent interview, where he said the gifts were “substantively similar.”

Billionaires use charitable giving to address a variety of issues, from right-wing politics to preserving wildlife. Communication and public policy professor Matthew Nisbet of Northeastern University has been outspoken against the role philanthropy and billionaires play in climate change before and told Grist that the newly announced Patagonia decision may be applauded by many in environmental industries, but Yvon Chouinard has essentially gone from a reluctant billionaire to political fat cat.

“Now that they’ve invented this (model) and introduced it to the marketplace for politically motivated billionaires, regardless of their background, everyone’s going to do it,“ Nisbet said. “This is an escalating zero-sum political arms race.” With the creation of the new 501c4 Holdfast Collective, Nisbet likened this new organization to other notable political spending groups, such as the National Rifle Association and the conservative Club for Growth.

Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. Campbell Brewer

A 501c4 organization, considered a tax-exempt, social welfare organization by the Internal Revenue Service, is not required to disclose its donors but must disclose money granted to other organizations equal to $5,000 or more. 501c4 organizations can engage in political lobbying and endorse candidates related to their organizational mission.*

Nisbet feared that the influx of cash controlled by an interest group would set the agenda of climate issues in the political realm moving forward. “Do you believe that our politics should be decided by billionaires who can spend hundreds of millions of dollars in elections with no accountability, no transparency, and pick and choose winners or pick and choose issues?” he asked.

Lack of transparency in political spending and philanthropy has mired public perception of charitable giving, causing long-standing scrutiny that dates back to 20th-century oil baron John D. Rockefeller’s creation of his namesake foundation. 501c4 organizations have funded anti-climate Facebook ads and directly influence climate legislation at the state level, with little knowledge of who funds these actions. While the source of the Holdfast Collective’s funding will come directly from Patagonia’s profits, Nisbet said he worries the new organization could become a way for other billionaires to donate and influence climate issues. Modern-day billionaires have taken climate change, the environment, and agriculture under their charitable wings more often in recent years, despite 10 percent of the world’s richest people producing half of the globe’s carbon emissions.

Soon-to-be trillionaire Jeff Bezos created a $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund in 2020, but Amazon has come under fire from watchdogs for undercounting its carbon footprint, punishing climate-focused workers, and polluting neighboring communities. Bill Gates has focused his philanthropy on agriculture and global hunger, while critics accuse him of gobbling up American farmland and cornering the market on seeds. Both Bezos and Gates have poured billions into tech-focused climate solutions, as well as Tesla founder Elon Musk also offering up $100 million for carbon capture innovations.

Patagonia has increased its political presence in recent years when it went to the courtroom to fight for the conservation of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and joined legal battles against logging, as well as commented on voting rights. The outdoor retail giant does have a long history of charitable giving, as they’ve donated 1 percent of all profits to environmental causes for decades and donated back $10 million of tax cuts to climate advocates.

Patagonia spokesperson Corley Kenna told Grist that, at this time, there are no publicly announced organizations that the company’s future funds will go to, but “all options are on the table.” She said Chouinard and the Holdfast Collective are interested in tackling the root causes of the climate crisis, including land and water protection, grantmaking to on-the-ground groups, and funding policy focused on solutions.

The spokesperson strongly rebuked the criticism that the recently announced company transition is not rooted in transparency and will fuel untraceable funds, citing Patagonia’s long history of transparency about its manufacturing, giving, and leadership.

“Yvon Chouinard, the Chouinard family, and the Holdfast Collective is not an extension of a political party,” Kenna said. “What we’re talking about here is a family that is committed to addressing the existential crises facing our planet.”

With big-name companies and wealthy families entering the fray, climate-focused philanthropy has grown in recent years, but still accounts for less than 2 percent of global giving, according to a report last year by ClimateWorks Foundation. Shawn Reifsteck, vice president of strategy and communications for the foundation, said Patagonia is “trailblazing a new way for companies to give back for generations to come” and he hopes others will follow suit. Philanthropic strategist Bruce DeBoskey said more and more philanthropists are recognizing that the traditional model of writing checks and giving grants has not been successful in solving overarching societal problems and billionaires are adopting new models of giving, such as the Chouinard family’s giveaway.

“It’s not about changes in the tax laws that I’m aware of,” DeBoskey said. “It’s about the changes in thinking.”

Editor’s note: Patagonia is an advertiser with Grist. Advertisers have no role in Grist’s editorial decisions.

*Correction: This story originally misidentified a 501c4 organization’s political capabilities.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PATAGONIA 

Scientists discover why the Andes are rising up as glaciers melt

Rob Waugh
·Contributor
Tue, 1 March 2022

The mountains of Patagonia are 'growing' (Ben Tiger)

The glaciers on the Andes mountain range are melting quickly at some of the fastest rates on the planet but scientists have been confused as to why the ground beneath them is rising up rapidly too - until now.

When glaciers melt, a tremendous weight is lifted from the ground that once supported them.

The newly unburdened earth rebounds and rises - but in Patagonia, it’s happening to an extreme level.

Geologists have discovered a link between recent ice mass loss, rapid rock uplift and a gap between tectonic plates that underlie Patagonia, using a seismic study of the Patagonian Andes.

The Andes has some of the steepest peaks in the world. (Getty)

Read more: Melting snow in Himalayas drives growth of green sea slime visible from space

Hannah Mark, a former Steve Fossett postdoctoral fellow in earth and planetary sciences at Washington University said: "Variations in the size of glaciers, as they grow and shrink, combined with the mantle structure that we've imaged in this study are driving rapid and spatially variable uplift in this region.”

The seismic data shows how a gap in the down-going tectonic plate about 60 miles beneath Patagonia has enabled hotter, less viscous mantle material to flow underneath South America.

Above this gap, the icefields have been shrinking, removing weight that previously caused the continent to flex downward.

These conditions are driving many of the recent changes that have been observed in Patagonia, including the rapid uplift in certain areas once covered by ice.

Read more: Why economists worry that reversing climate change is hopeless

Guanaco in Chilean Patagonia. (Getty)

Read more: A 1988 warning about climate change was mostly right

Seismologist Douglas Wiens, Robert S. Brookings Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences, said: "Low viscosities mean that the mantle responds to deglaciation on the time scale of tens of years, rather than thousands of years, as we observe in Canada for example.

“This explains why GPS has measured large uplift due to the loss of ice mass.

"Another significant thing is that the viscosity is higher beneath the southern part of the Southern Patagonia Icefield compared to the Northern Patagonia Icefield, which helps to explain why uplift rates vary from north to south.”

Geologists see evidence of this combination of ice mass changes and uplift in places all over the world.

There's no turning back.

Wiens first visited Patagonia more than 25 years ago. He said that he is shocked by changes that he has observed in his lifetime.

"The beautiful glaciers are being reduced in size," Wiens said.

"Over the coming decades, the ice fronts will recede higher up the mountains and farther into the interior, potentially making them more difficult to visit. I can easily see that the glaciers have shrunk since I first visited this area in 1996."

Patagonia’s cave art identified as south America’s earliest pigment-based paintings

By

 Knowridge

 -

February 16, 2024

Credit: Guadalupe Romero Villanueva

The discovery of ancient cave art in Patagonia, dated to be as old as 8,200 years, marks a significant breakthrough in understanding the cultural and historical timeline of South America.

This revelation, made by an international team of scientists and published in Science Advances, not only pushes back the age of the earliest known cave art in the continent but also offers a glimpse into the lives of its ancient inhabitants.

Patagonia, a region at the southern tip of South America known for its arid landscapes and the southern Andes, has long been recognized as a significant area for archaeological research.

It is believed to have been one of the last regions on Earth to be settled by modern humans, around 12,000 years ago.

The harsh conditions of Patagonia, characterized by minimal rainfall and limited food sources, coupled with a prolonged hot and dry spell that began about 10,000 years ago, would have made survival challenging for its early inhabitants.

The site of interest, Cueva Huenul 1, is adorned with approximately 900 paintings, a testament to the rich cultural expressions of the people who once thrived in this challenging environment. Prior to this study, the consensus among researchers was that the cave art in this region dated back just a few thousand years.

However, the use of radiocarbon dating on the plant-based “paint” used in these artworks has dramatically shifted this timeline, identifying the oldest among them as being created 8,200 years ago.

This method of dating, which measures the decay of carbon-14 to estimate the age of organic materials, has proven to be a crucial tool in piecing together the history of human civilization.

The findings not only underscore the artistic expression and cultural sophistication of ancient South American societies but also highlight the enduring human spirit in the face of environmental adversities.

While the cave art in Patagonia does not claim the title for the world’s oldest, a distinction held by artwork found in Indonesia, it significantly enriches our understanding of prehistoric art on the South American continent.

These ancient markings provide invaluable insights into the symbolic world of early humans, reflecting their beliefs, experiences, and interactions with their environment.

The discovery prompts further investigation into the lives of the ancient Patagonians, inviting researchers to delve deeper into the mysteries of human expansion and cultural development across the globe.

It also raises intriguing questions about the spread of artistic practices among early human societies and the universal drive for expression that transcends geographical and temporal boundaries.

As research continues, the ancient cave art of Patagonia stands as a beacon, illuminating the past and guiding scholars in their quest to unravel the complex tapestry of human history.

The research findings can be found in Science Advances.

Copyright © 2024 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.

How Joe Lewis stole a piece of Patagonia for himself

Reportage. Local communities have been fighting for 17 years against the ‘parallel state’ of British billionaire Joe Lewis, who has cut off access to public lands with his illicit property.

• 
  
• written by Claudia Fanti
• Published on July 26, 2022

It is a struggle that has been going on for more than 17 years, in defense of Argentine sovereignty over Lago Escondido in Patagonia’s Río Negro province. It began, as always, with an offense, one of many that Patagonia has been subjected to at the hands of foreign billionaires. The perpetrator, in this case, was Joe Lewis, now 85 years old and the sixth richest man in the United Kingdom, with a fortune amounting to more than $5 billion, ranking him No. 302 on Forbes’ list of billionaires in 2019.

Famous as the owner of Tottenham, one of the Premier League’s most important soccer clubs, and, as part of his Tavistock Group, of several businesses in various parts of the world, Lewis owes his wealth to a significant extent to the speculative attack on the pound he carried out together with George Soros on September 16, 1992, which went down in history as Black Wednesday, when the British government had to withdraw the currency from the European exchange rate mechanism. Some think he gained even more than Soros on that occasion; it is certain that the operation was so successful for him that he did not hesitate to repeat it in 1995 with the Mexican peso, increasing his haul even more.

Bolstered by these successes, in 1996 Lewis decided to buy himself a little piece of paradise in Argentine Patagonia. To do so, he turned to local real estate agent Nicolás Van Ditmar, the current administrator of his estate, who had already facilitated the sale of endless amounts of land to the Benetton group (which owns nearly 900,000 hectares in Patagonia alone). It was through him that Lewis purchased the Montero family property around Lago Escondido, a beautiful mountain lake nestled in a protected area (the Río Azul-Lago Escondido Natural Area) that is home to many animals including the southern huemul, a rare species of deer native to the Andean regions of Argentina and Chile.

The purchase should never have been allowed to take place, as Argentine legislation prohibits the sale of property close to the border to foreign nationals for reasons of national security – and the Montero property is located just 20 km from the Chilean border.

But it would take more than a law to discourage the British tycoon, who circumvented the obstacle by resorting to an Argentine company, H.R. Properties Buenos Aires SA, which, once the purchase was completed, sold the property to Hidden Lake SA, controlled by the billionaire. It was thanks to these maneuvers that Lewis, although a British citizen, was able to buy 7,800 hectares close to the border, containing a lake that by law is public property (like all the bodies of water in the country), later managing to add another 2,700 hectares and also building himself a private airport in the Río Negro with a runway almost 2000 meters long, but without a radar station, so as to guarantee himself the utmost confidentiality on takeoffs and landings (and from which it would take him two hours by plane to get to the Malvinas).

Since then, for the locals, reaching the lake became an adventure in itself. The only way to access it is now through a steep and in some places dangerous path – passable only in summer – that requires at least two days of travel, despite the fact that there is a dirt road, the Tacuifí path, that would allow one to get there in a few hours. And even though the Río Negro Superior Court of Justice has ordered Lewis’s company to allow passage through the Tacuifí path back in 2009, and then again in 2013, the authorities have never done anything to ensure that the rulings were respected, so access to the lake continues to depend on the whims of Lewis’s private security guards, whose power is said to be greater than that of the provincial police.

A new verdict was expected in early June from the Bariloche Court of Appeals, which was expected to rule on Lewis’s failure to comply with a 2013 ruling by Judge Carlos Cuellar, who had given the Río Negro government 90 days to guarantee free access to the lake.

It has been nine years since then, and the new verdict is also getting delayed, as a collection of more than 50 social, labor and political organizations have denounced in a statement. They also demand that the judiciary authorities enforce Resolutions 393 and 503 issued on April 18 and May 5 by the Inspección General de Justicia, Argentina’s corporate oversight body, which had ordered the liquidation of Lewis’s company and its assets, thus including the land surrounding Lago Escondido.

The resolutions came for two reasons: failure to comply with the 2013 ruling and the nature of Hidden Lake SA as a shell company, not aimed at any production of goods or provision of services, but used just “to hide Lewis’s substantial assets in Patagonia.” A company which, according to Resolution 393, is being used by the tycoon “for his own and exclusive interest, which is nothing more than to live in a paradise-like place, surrounded by mountains and lakes, without allowing access to anyone except a small circle of friends and guests, and without offering any access path to admire these natural beauties, the enjoyment of which cannot be his exclusive privilege.”

But it’s hard to see this “parallel state” he has built, as MintPress News reporter Whitney Webb called it in 2019, coming to an end any time soon. Indeed, in the ongoing tug-of-war, Lewis has full control over local political power, as El Bolsón journalist Reynaldo Rodríguez has reported. And Governor Arabela Carreras certainly has some connection to the issue: she first called the conflict “an ideological issue,” and later made it quite clear that ensuring access to the lake was not among her priorities.

The tycoon’s power was also apparent in an obvious way on the occasion of the sixth march for sovereignty over Escondido Lake, held in February (another one has been announced for September), when a group of demonstrators demanding access to the lake was stopped and violently assaulted by Lewis’s private security guards, who, they say, were led by Nicolás van Ditmar himself. After all, it was clear from 2011 that the tycoon’s right-hand man was no stranger to making threats, when he had publicly declared that he was ready to prevent locals from accessing the Tacuifí path, which passes a few meters away from Lewis’s main residence, “with a Winchester rifle in his hand.”

One of those who has enjoyed access to the lake all this time has been former President Mauricio Macri, who, already accused in 2016 of receiving campaign financing from Lewis, has now been subject to a criminal complaint by Frente de Todos deputy Rodolfo Tailhade for having unduly favored the British tycoon. Through Decree 820/2016, the former president amended Law 26,737, which placed a limit on the “growing process of ceding large areas of land in our country to foreign nationals.” Not coincidentally, the drafting of the decree was entrusted to the law firm Brons & Salas, whose domicile is the same as that of Hidden Lake SA.

According to Rodolfo Tailhade, this means that “through his lawyers, Joe Lewis himself drafted the decree from which he was set to benefit.”

https://global.ilmanifesto.it/

ARGENTINA
Worries over wind farms cloud condor repopulation program

 

NATACHA PISARENKO and DANIEL POLITI
Tue, October 18, 2022 

SIERRA PAILEMAN, Argentina (AP) — It was a sunny morning when about 200 people trudged up a hill in Argentina's southern Patagonia region with a singular mission: free two Andean condors that had been born in captivity.

While members of the Mapuche, the largest Indigenous group in the area, played traditional instruments, and a group of children threw condor feathers into the air that symbolized their good wishes for the newly liberated birds, an eerie silence engulfed the mountain in Sierra Paileman in Rio Negro province as researchers opened the cages where the two specimens of the world’s largest flying bird were kept.

Huasi (meaning home in Quechua) seemed born for this moment. As soon as the cage opened, he spread his wings and took off without a moment’s hesitation, surprising researchers who are accustomed to a more trepidatious takeoff. Yastay (meaning god that is protector of birds) appeared cautious, uncertain of the wide open Patagonia skies after spending his first two years in captivity, and it took him around an hour before taking off.

The emotion in the air was palpable. People hugged while researchers sprang into action and started tracking the birds. It was a moment that so many had been working toward for months.

It was also bittersweet.

Preliminary plans for a massive wind farm that could be located in the Somuncura Plateau to feed a green hydrogen project is putting at risk a three-decade-long effort to repopulate Patagonia's Atlantic coast with a bird that is classified as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Conservationists fear the birds inevitably would collide with the rotating blades of the turbines and be killed. In neighboring Chile, an environmental impact study for a planned wind farm with 65 windmills concluded that as many as four of the rare condors could collide with the massive structures yearly. Environmental authorities rejected the project las year.

“Why are we freeing two? We generally free more than two,” Vanesa Astore, executive director of the Andean Condor Conservation Program, said. “We’re at like a maintenance level now.”

Researchers had to release Huasi and Yastay now or risk that they would have to remain in captivity for the rest of their lives, which can range from 70 to 80 years, Astore explained, noting condors can only adapt to the outside world if they are released before their third birthday.

The current uncertainty regarding the future of the wind farm that would be built by Australian firm Fortescue Future Industries has not only put conservationists on alert but has prompted conservationists to slow the pace of reproduction and release of the Andean condors.

Condors are notoriously slow breeders that only reach sexual maturity at 9 years old and have an offspring every three years, but researchers have found ways to speed that up by removing eggs from pairs in captivity to incubate artificially. When the egg is removed, the pair will then produce another egg within a month, which they will raise while the first one is raised by humans with the help of latex puppets meant to simulate their parents and help them recognize members of their own species.

That strategy allow researchers to “increase reproductive capacity by six times,” said Luis Jacome, the head of the Andean Condor Conservation Program.

That effort is now on pause.

“We aren’t maximizing because I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Astore explained.

Since the conservation program started 30 years ago, 81 chicks have been born in captivity, 370 condors have been rehabilitated and 230 freed across South America, including Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia.

Sixty-six of those have been released along Patagonia’s Atlantic coast, where the bird was nowhere to be seen at the turn of the century even though Charles Darwin had written in the early 1800s about the presence of the large birds in the region.

The Andean condor has now made a comeback, and for many locals that has has a spiritual resonance.

“The condor flies very high, so our elders used to say that the condor could take a message to those who are no longer here,” said Doris Canumil, 59, a Mapuche who took part in the ceremonies for the liberation of the condors.

While they celebrate the success of the program, conservationists worry it could all be erased.

“These birds that we’ve liberated, that once again joined the mountain range with the sea through their flight, that have matured and had their own offspring that live and fly here in this place, they will simply die in the blades of the windmills,” Jacome said. “So the condor would once again become extinct in the Atlantic coast.”

Conservationists found out about the proposed wind farm through the media and alarm bells immediately went off.

Last year, Fortescue unveiled a plan to invest $8.4 billion over a decade in a project to produce green hydrogen for export in what the government touted as the largest international investment in Argentina over the past two decades. In order to qualify as green, the hydrogen must be produced using renewable power, and that is where the windmill farm would come in, taking advantage of the strong, reliable winds of Patagonia.

The government of President Alberto Fernández celebrated the project, saying it would create 15,000 direct jobs and somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 indirect jobs.

Yet neither the company nor the provincial government of Rio Negro had carried out an environmental impact study before unveiling the project.

For now at least, Jacome said, the “only thing green are the dollars” attached to the project.

“We’re putting the cart before the horse,” Jacome said. “We need to have environmental impact studies that demonstrate what is going to be done, how many windmills, where they will be placed.”

Fortescue agrees and says it “is committed to evaluating the social, environmental, engineering, and economic considerations before committing to the development" of any project.

The Australian firm said in a statement that any pre-development study will include consultations with local organizations to “guarantee the protection of the local species such as the Andean Condor.”

Following questions about the project, Fortescue has decided to not measure winds at the Somuncura Plateau until the province finishes its environmental plan and will instead explore "other areas of interest within lands near Sierra Grande and the Province of Chubut,” the company said.

On Oct. 11, the Rio Negro provincial government said Fortescue launched a 12-month effort to analyze the environmental and social impacts of the project.

For those who have made repopulating the Patagonia coast with the condor their life’s work, the discussions over the future of the project are deeply personal.

“We feel a little bit like parents,” said Catalina Rostagno, who moved to the base camp in Rio Negro two and a half months ago for the process of liberating Huasi and Yastay. “The condor is a reflection of me.”

For the Indigenous inhabitants of the region, the way in which the planned project would produce something that will be exported, recalls a different era.

“Patagonia once again becomes the land of sacrifice,” Canumil said. “The clean energy won’t be used in Argentina, it will go to Europe, but we will be the deposit for what is left behind.”

——-

Politi reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

PHOTO ESSAY

Andean condor feathers lay on a rock in the Sierra Paileman where the Andean Condor Conservation Program operates in the Rio Negro province of Argentina, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. For 30 years the program has hatched chicks in captivity, rehabilitated others and freed them across South America. 

(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
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