Douglas Tompkins, the founder of Esprit and North Face, has spent some $200 million purchasing 810,000 hectares of land in South America in an effort to preserve the continent’s rainforests. As Bloomberg reports, he’s a believer [they say “proponent,” but “believer” is more appropriate] in Deep Ecology, “a philosophy that blames technology from laptop computers to nuclear power plants for damaging the environment.” The crown jewel of his South American holdings is Pumalin, a Chilean nature sanctuary and eco-tourist destination.

Thompkins is now feeling the heat of some really deep ecology. Pumalin abuts the Chaiten volcano — which is no less active than when it erupted two weeks ago [OK, maybe not this active; Watts Up With That has some more recent satellite images]. Bloomberg reports that the eruption has “devastated a third of Pumalin” with ash and flooding. The volcano is at the southern tip of Pumalin: presumably, Chaiten’s north face is not what it used to be.

Interestingly, Chile plans to ban all land purchases in the region, fearing that Tompkins might take advantage of the disaster to buy up land devastated by the eruption in an effort to unify his Pumalin holdings, which are presently separated by the village of Huinay. If Tompkins can unite his Chilean real estate, his property will bisect the narrow country.

[Hat-tip to Matt Szekely.]