Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman

Chouinard is pessimistic about the fate of the environment because he sees no global drive to combat climate change. He believes that immoral, destructive forces are more powerful than their opposite—that evil is stronger than good. Nevertheless, he’s not depressed; he has a Buddhist’s equanimity amidst this state of things, accepting that everything has to end at some point. Chouinard believes activism cures the depression caused by this pessimism about the natural world. As such, activism is the foundation of Patagonia’s environmental philosophy. The goal of its activism is the type of sustainability in governance the Iroquois Nation practiced by planning seven generations into the future. Following this model, Patagonia believes that successful, long-lasting companies and governments should function like a balanced environment whose overall health is dependent on the health of its constituent parts.

The only completely sustainable practices current governments could support are selective forestry, fishing, and small-scale agriculture because all three rely on the sun’s boundless energy. However, most governments fund unsustainable practices in these three industries. For example, instead of promoting targeted fishing of salmon in rivers as Iceland has done, countries with big salmon-fishing industries still promote the type of commercial ocean fishing that decimates endangered species.