Great Quotations
These quotations, some from famous people, some from ordinary
citizens, are enlightening and inspiring. Most tell us why we should care about
our planet and its inhabitants. A few reveal the strange mentalities of people
who cannot grasp the idea that humans need a healthy Earth to survive.
NEW! — Click here for recently added quotations.
Quotation categories
are, in order listed:
It’s about human survival &
welfare, stupid!
Future humans, too…sustainability
Urgency and seriousness of the
threat
Nature’s spiritual and moral
meaning
The damage we’re doing -- general
The damage we’re doing -- climate
change
Stupid/dishonest quotes from the
other side
IT’S ABOUT HUMAN SURVIVAL
& WELFARE, STUPID!
“People here say, ‘Why should I care about the rainforests
in
“Conservation is sometimes perceived as stopping
everything cold, as holding whooping cranes in higher esteem than people. It is
up to science to spread the understanding that the choice is not between wild
places or people, it is between a rich or impoverished existence.” — Thomas E. Lovejoy,
high-level environmental leader in government, business and non-profit sectors,
quoted in
“To exist as a nation, to prosper as a state and to
live as a people, we must have trees.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 1907 Arbor Day
proclamation.
“As we destroy the environment, we also destroy the
foundation of sustainable development of communities and societies.” – Queen Noor of
“Fortunately, doing the right things for diving ducks
also means doing the right things for the health of our waters and of our grandchildren.
Clean waters free of excess sediments, nutrients and toxins
means healthy plants, clams and ducks – and healthy people.” – Dr. Mike Anderson in Ducks
Unlimited magazine, January-February 2005.
“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for
man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time
tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” – E. B. White.
“The world’s environmental problems will get resolved, in one way or another…The only question is whether
they will become resolved in pleasant ways of our own choice or in unpleasant
ways not of our choice, such as warfare, genocide, starvation, disease
epidemics, and collapses of society.” – Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,
quoted in The Reporter, newsletter of
The Population Connection, Spring 2005.
"Of all the questions which can come before this
nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there
is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving
this land even a better land for our descendant than it is for us, and training
them into a better race to inhabit the land and pass it on. Conservation is
a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of ensuring the safety
and continuance of the nation." ‑‑ President Theodore
Roosevelt (emphasis added).
"Within the environmental arena, a strategy of
business as usual will lead to some very unusual forms of business, if only
because of environmental forces that are becoming ever‑more forceful.
Fortunately a number of corporate leaders...are coming to understand that there
can be no sustainable business except within an overall context of sustainable
development." -- Dr. Norman Myers, Fellow,
"People have to get the sense that protecting
the environment is directly linked to their own personal well‑being."
-- Xie Zhenhua, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration,
China's top environmental official.
"Most economists today, and all
but the most politically conservative of their public interpreters, recognize
very well that the world has limits and that the human population cannot afford
to grow much larger. They know that humanity is destroying biodiversity. They
just don't like to spend a lot of time
thinking about it....Perhaps the time has come to cease calling (our
perspective) the 'environmentalist' view, as though it were a lobbying effort
outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world
view." -- Edward O. Wilson, eminent Harvard biologist and inventor of the
term biodiversity, in "The Bottleneck," Scientific American, February 2002.
"I do not intend that our natural resources
shall be exploited by the few against the interests of the many." --
President Theodore Roosevelt.
"We want the active and zealous help of every
man far‑sighted enough to realize the importance from the standpoint of
the nation's welfare in the future of preserving the forests." ‑‑ President Theodore Roosevelt.
"A rancher has to be a conservationist, too,
because if you're even a little short on grass, everybody — cows, wildlife, and
the stockman — goes
hungry." --
"In growing numbers, business
leaders are coming out of the closet to acknowledge the design problems of our
outlaw industrial system. Evolving an economic system consistent with the laws
of nature is the challenge of our times. It will require harnessing imagination
and innovation of businesses around the world. In this process, the leadership
of large global corporations will be pivotal." -- Peter
M. Senge, MIT and Society for Organizational Learning.
"It is often possible to show
that not only does protecting our natural landscapes not damage local economic
vitality but such protected landscapes often are associated with enhanced
economic vitality...The truth is that economic analysis does not uniformly
support commercial development of wildlands. Economic analysis often supports
preservation. Even where there may be a net economic cost associated with
preservation, that cost is often greatly exaggerated by development
interests....Economic research has repeatedly demonstrated that areas with
high-quality natural environments that are protected by official wilderness or
park status have been able to attract higher levels of economic activity."
— Article by Thomas Michael Power, Economics Department, University of Montana,
published in Redrock
Wilderness, the newsletter of the
“You won’t have an economy on a dead
planet” — David Brower.
"Environmental conservation is usually seen as a
chore. But conservation is not a drain on the economy,
it's a source of benefit…the economic argument for conserving the environment
was not getting a hearing, although the economic arguments against conservation
are always emphasized." — Geoffrey Heal, author of Nature and the Marketplace.
"I interpret the Classic period
of the ancient Maya civilization as one of profligate waste, followed by a
period of decline. The Maya woke up and discovered resources were in short
supply, and they became very efficient very fast…they recycled, they reused.
But it was too late." -- William L. Rathje, landfill archaeologist, in
"Once and Future Landfills," National
Geographic, May 1991.
"Research from Idaho State
University and the University of Montana has shown that the amenity value of
pristine places acts as a draw for both visitation and population growth. This
is why wilderness counties tend to show such economic vitality." -- Southern
“The
FUTURE HUMANS,
TOO…SUSTAINABILITY
“We cannot achieve success by just creating protected
areas. We must embrace human activity. Conservation is a state of harmony
between humans and the land, transcending the notion that there are ‘protected
areas’ and, therefore, that everything else is unprotected.” — Steven J.
McCormick, president and chief executive officer, The Nature Conservancy,
quoted in Wildflower magazine, Spring
2007.
“In fact, the eroding capacity of ecosystems to
provide goods and services has many negative economic impacts, including more
frequent and severe flooding and other natural disasters, increased insurance
premiums, reduced agricultural yields, and disruption in the supply of natural
resources that depend on functioning ecosystems.” — Dawn Browne, in “Natural Assets,” an
article in the Ducks Unlimited member magazine, March-April 2008.
“While the farmer holds the title to the land,
actually it belongs to all of the people because civilization itself rests upon
the soil.” – Thomas Jefferson.
“At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning. Human
activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of the Earth that
the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no
longer be taken for granted.” – Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a UN-sponsored report produced by over 1,300 scientists,
policy-makers and other experts.
“A sustainable society is one that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.” – World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987.
“Sustainability does not mean zero growth. Rather, a
sustainable society would be interested in qualitative development, not
physical expansion. It would use material growth as a considered tool, not a
perpetual mandate. Neither for nor against growth, it would
begin to discriminate among kinds of growth and purposes of growth. It would
ask what the growth is for, and who would benefit, and what it would cost, and
how long it would last, and whether the growth could be accommodated by the
sources and sinks of the Earth.” – Donella Meadows, Jorgen
“One of the strangest assumptions of present-day mental
models is the idea that a world of moderation must be one of strict,
centralized government control. A sustainable world would need rules, laws,
standards, boundaries, social agreements and social constraints, of course, but
rules for sustainability would be put into place not to destroy freedoms, but
to create freedoms or protect them” -- Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers and
Dennis Meadows, in “A Synopsis, Limits to Growth, the 30-Year Update,” in The
Reporter, newsletter of The Population Connection, Spring 2005.
"...federal lands belong to all Americans and
should be managed in the interests of all Americans, including future
generations of Americans -- not just local industry interests. It is no
accident that behind every call for 'local control' is an industry that stands
to benefit, whether it is the cattlemen of the sagebrush rebellion,
(Undersecretary of Agriculture and Forest Service overseer Mark) Rey's timber
industry cronies with the charter forests, or the snowmobile industry and their
demands for unfettered access to Yellowstone National Park. (New Park Service)
Director (Fran) Mainella's words expose the Bush administration's push for
local control of our public lands for what it truly is: 'the mutual impulse to
turn the fruits of discovery to the personal profits...and the lure of
speculative gain.'" — Shawn Regnerus, Program Associate, Predator
Conservation
"The greatest good of the greatest
number applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those
now alive form but an insignificant fraction." -- President Theodore
Roosevelt.
"In the course of fighting the
present fire, we must not abandon our efforts to create the fire-resistant
structure of the future." -- Randy Kehler, quoted by his friend Bill Moyer.
"If Laura Bush would like to
leave her mark on her husband's presidency, maybe she could act like the
grandmother that she may be someday by persuading her husband to leave a
sustainable planet on which her descendants can live....This Earth is a gift
from God, a planet with lovely, diverse landscapes and animals. Can we continue
to destroy this planet by polluting the air and water and displacing the
animals, while still expecting to
maintain a viable life source for its population. Should we not protect future
generations by preserving their environment...?" — Lesa McKenzie,
Englewood, Colo., in a letter to the editor of U.S. News and World Report.
"If future generations are to remember us more
with gratitude than with sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of
technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created,
not just as it looked when we got through with it." -- President Lyndon
Johnson.
"We have not inherited the
earth from our parents; we have borrowed it from our children." -- Kenyan
Saying (also attributed to other cultures).
“I’m not a radical environmentalist, but I believe we
are to be good stewards of what is entrusted to us…Environmentalists and
farmers are not enemies. We can work together.” — Matt Young, dairy farmer,
Peach Bottom,
“We have looked for, and have not found, any
convincing economic argument for continued population growth. The health of our
economy does not depend upon it, nor does the vitality of business, nor the
welfare of the average person.” — John D.
Rockefeller, III, Chairman, Commission on Population and the American Future,
1972.
“If we don't halt population growth
with justice and compassion, it will be
done for us by nature, brutally and without pity — and we will leave a
ravaged world.” — Nobel Laureate Dr. Henry W. Kendall.
“There is an interesting contrast between population
and consumption issues. There is a stunningly large unmet need for family
planning, which means that population growth rates are amenable to change. You
don’t need to ask people to change their minds at all; you need only to make
family planning easier to obtain. Consumption is the opposite: there is no
unmet need for consuming less, and therefore reducing consumption is painfully
difficult to achieve.” — Martha Campbell, lecturer, University of
“…it is an inconvenient truth that all proposals or
efforts to slow global warming or to move towards sustainability are serious
intellectual frauds if they do not advocate reducing population to a
sustainable level at the local, national and global scales.” — Albert Allen
Bartlett, professor emeritus of physics, University of Colorado-Boulder.
“From the Earth’s point of view, it’s not all that
important which kind of diapers you use. The important decision was having the
baby.” — Study by Dartmouth College professor for Sustainability Institute,
“In terms of resource availability, the best guess
that I’ve seen is that the Earth can support one to two billion people,
according to the American lifestyle.” – John Seager, president and CEO of
Population, in an interview by Jim Motavalli, editor of E/The Environmental Magazine, reprinted in the Population
Connection magazine The Reporter,
Fall 2005.
“…Katrina didn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s part of a
mounting series of calamities ranging from famines to civil strife to severe
weather and pandemics. All are linked to human population growth and to our
collective wanton disregard of every rule of science and nature. While we can’t
say for certain that a given weather event was caused by global warming, the
trend seems clear. And population pressure and the loss of wetlands helped make
Katrina even more destructive.” -- John Seager, president and CEO of
Population, in the president’s column of the Population Connection magazine The Reporter, Fall
2005.
"Most developed economies currently consume
resources much faster than they can regenerate. Most developing countries with
rapid population growth face the urgent need to improve living
standards...improving living standards without destroying the environment is a
global challenge." -- Johns Hopkins report, Population and the Environment: The Global Challenge.
"....if we do not put the human population at
the core of the sustainable-development agenda, our efforts to improve human
well-being and preserve the equality of the environment will fail." --
Mahendra Shah, coordinator, The Global Science Panel on Population and
Environment.
"At current fertility rates, we will add more
people to the planet in the next 50 years than we have in the previous 500,000
years…And yet, despite our enormous wealth, the U.S. is last among the top 20
countries contributing to international family planning assistance." -- Population and Habitat: Making the
Connection, National Audubon Society pamphlet.
"In those days there were many, many people. The
people made so much noise that the gods could not sleep. So the gods decided to
destroy mankind. They decided to send a flood to cover the earth." --
ancient Sumerian flood story (NOTE: Today, rising sea levels are a predicted
effect of global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions that grow as human
population grows.)
"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology
of the cancer cell." —
Unknown.
"Man has gone to the moon, but
he does not yet know how to make a flame tree or a bird song. Let us keep our
dear countries free from irreversible mistakes which would lead us in the
future to long for those same birds and trees." -- Felix Houphouet-Boigny,
President, The
"The pattern of human
population growth in the 20th century was more bacterial than primate. When
Homo sapiens passed the six billion mark, we had already exceeded by perhaps as
much as 100 times the biomass of any large animal species that ever existed on
the land. We and the rest of life cannot afford another 100 years like
that." — Edward O. Wilson, eminent Harvard biologist and inventor of the
term biodiversity, in "The Bottleneck,"
Scientific American magazine, February 2002.
"We already appropriate by some
means or other 40 percent of the planet's organic matter produced by green
plants....If humans utilized as food all of the energy captured by
photosynthesis on land and sea, some 40 trillion watts, the planet could
support about 16 billion people. But long before that ultimate limit was
approached, the planet would surely have become a hellish place to exist. --
Edward O. Wilson, eminent Harvard biologist and inventor of the term
biodiversity, in "The Bottleneck," Scientific American, February 2002.
"The loot of town and tavern
has given way to the universal thievery of natural resources that modern civilization
has made necessary for the progression of man and the supremacy of his
political institutions. In those old days, it was the orderless strife of
individuals; now it is the predetermined struggle of nations. In those times
when the world was opulent and the greed
of man was the small greed of his single self, mankind marauded rather
than warred. Now it is the struggle of nations in the last looting of nature;
increasing each year in intensity, not alone by the added increment of
population, but by the development of material science and the growing hungers
of insatiable civilization...." — Homer Lea, The Day of the Saxon, 1911.
"Over-consumption, waste, and
poverty are combining to destroy the environment that support us all. Global
warming is a fact, with rising sea levels and unpredictable climate change.
Rapid population growth is a fact, with the poorest countries and the poorest
areas asked to bear the biggest increases. Species destruction is a fact, with
more and more people depending on a shrinking based of natural resources.
Stress on food and water resources are facts, with the severest stresses in the
most needy
areas...We must renew our commitment to ICPD goals. We must accept our
responsibilities to ourselves and to each other. We must find the balance that
will renew our world and enable all its people to meet
their aspirations." -- Thoraya Obaid, Executive Drector, United Nations
Family Planning Agency. Quoted in the Spring/Summer 2002 newsletter of Zero
Population Growth
(now renamed the Population
Connection).
"Since 1980, the U.S. has
converted more than 10 million acres of forest to suburb -- and area twice as
large as Yellowstone, Everglades. Shenandoah and Yosemite National Parks
combined." -- Population and
Habitat: Making the Connection, National Audubon Society pamphlet.
URGENCY AND SERIOUSNESS OF
THE THREAT
“When you view our planet from space, you realize
that our blue sky is very thin, and therefore life as we know it on Earth is
very fragile. We need to take care of our environment.” — Col. John Blaha,
“Overall, my view is that it’s not too late if we
make changes really quickly.” — Peter Head, British designer and city planner,
when asked by CNN in a July 2008 interview if it was too late to create an
environment in which humans could live sustainable lives.
“Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only
mar it."
— Theodore Roosevelt,
1903
"Every tick of the clock is
against us," said Abdolhamid Amirebrahimi, an Iranian representative with
the U.N.-funded Caspian Environment Program. "The Caspian is dying before our
eyes and the people of this region are too environmentally illiterate to
notice."
“The environmental movement is
reaching a delicate moment. We're well
past the point where going green is novel, where just doing your bit to
save the Earth deserves endless praise. We've become inured to the
existence of global warming, to its inconvenient truth, yet we sense
that the solutions we've been given — change a light bulb, change your
life — fall far short of the scale of the problem. We risk green fatigue
because, after all, what can we do about it? But this is the moment when
we need to keep pushing in every way we can. The technologies that will
help us decarbonize energy are developing, but they need a push — and
that will only happen if we keep climate change near the top of our
political agenda. Earth Hour, Earth Day, Earth Year…we'll need it all.” — Bryan
Walsh, Time Magazine,
"People are challenged to make important
environmental, social and economic decisions in a world pervaded by uncertainties.
The prospects of global climate change pose especially difficult challenges for
conservation planners...But uncertainty doesn't preclude the need for
conservation decisions today." -- by Dr. Mike
Anderson in "Wetlands In A Warmer World," Ducks Unlimited magazine, March-April 2002.
"There is a window in time, and that is now,
when we could forever lose a precious ocean heritage, or we could develop the
foundation for an enduring legacy, an ocean ethic...an inspired gift from the
20th century to all who follow us." — Dr. Sylvia Earle, noted ocean explorer
and Center for Marine Conservation board member, in the CMC newsletter.
"It is tragic to see how much of the natural
world we have despoiled. We do not have much time left. We must act now."
-- Jane Goodall.
"If the world does not soon
experience a sea change in public policy regarding tropical forests, the last
tree of the primary forest will probably fall sometime before 2045. Despite the
creation of new organizations to promote sustainable forestry and the
continuing efforts of major international conservation organizations to promote
alternatives to deforestation, all indications are that the rate of forest loss
has accelerated through the 1990s." -- from Requiem for Nature by John Terborgh,
“We need to return the ecological
integrity to the entire system, not just bits and pieces. Nature should be more
than just a screensaver.” — Fisherman Willy Phillips,
quoted in Environmental Defense newsletter Solutions,
August 2007.
"When we tug at a single thing in nature, we
find it attached to the rest of the world." -- John Muir.
"All things are
interconnected...whatever befalls the earth befalls the people of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life...he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he
does to the web, he does to himself." – Usually attributed to Chief
Seattle, a Northwest Indian leader of the 19th century, but it has been proven
rather solidly that the saying was first used in the 1970s. Nonetheless, it
remains one of the most eloquent expressions of the most important idea in
conservation and is well worthy of repetition in its own right.
“To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution
of intelligent tinkering.” -- Aldo
Leopold.
"When it comes to conservation 'here is there'
and 'there is here.' Landscapes around the world, and the natural communities
that depend on them, are interconnected. The effects of a disappearing tropical
forest in Brazil are not isolated to that country…they are felt around the
world." -- Letter to Nature Conservancy members from TNC President Steven
J. McCormick.
"Not only does the miracle of biodiversity
enrich and beautify our lives, but the many species that exist are like rivets
in an airplane — an airplane that keeps us all aloft. How many rivets can we
lose before we all crash and burn?" -- Actor and environmentalist Ed
Begley Jr.
"We abuse land because we regard it as a
commodity belonging to us. When we begin to see land as a community to which we
belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." -- Aldo Leopold.
"We should judge every scrap of biodiversity as
priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to
humanity." -- biologist Edward O. Wilson.
"More than a collection of
individual species, nature is a superstructure of communities and processes.
From it issues a flow of wonder and possibilities. That flow,
the very nature of nature, cannot continue as we have known it without big,
diverse stretches of wildlands and linkages between them...." – Douglas H.
Chadwick, in "Elephants...out of time, out of space," in National Geographic, May 1991.
"What we have seen for the last
year is a strong environmental movement. We have the feeling
"Environmentalism is still
widely viewed, especially in the U.S., as a special-interest lobby. Its
proponents, in this blinkered view, flutter their hands over pollution and
threatened species, exaggerate their case, and press for industrial restraint
and the protection of wild places, even at the cost of economic development and
jobs. Environmentalism is something more central
and vastly more important....The natural environment we treat with such
unnecessary ignorance and recklessness was our cradle and nursery, our school
and remains our one and only home. To its special conditions we are intimately
adapted in every one of the bodily fibers and biochemical transactions that
gives us life." -- Edward O.
Wilson, eminent Harvard biologist and inventor of the term biodiversity, in
"The Bottleneck," Scientific
American magazine, February 2002.
“The Economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the
Environment.” — Tim Wirth
“Despite his artistic pretentions, his
sophistication, and many accomplishments, man owes his existence to a six-inch
layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” – Anonymous.
“Scientists estimate that nature’s benefits — also
called ecosystems services — are worth $30 trillion annually, more than the
combined domestic product of all nations.” — Peter A. Seligmann, Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer, Conservation International.
"If we don't have a good balance of predators,
the rodent population can go out of control. In a state like
"We need these unseen
invertebrate armies. Flies and moths are irreplaceable pollinators.
Caterpillars are songbird fodder. Worms, not farmers, are the great plowmen of
the earth, and if they ceased to till and fertilize the soil, or if insects no
longer inhabited our fields and forests, we would soon starve. The bodies of
invertebrates create the coral reefs and give rise to much of the life of the
oceans. We are already beginning to see what might happen without them. --
Richard Conniff, Spineless Wonders:
Strange Tales from the Invertebrate World.
“When one walks through the
countryside and finds a forest that has been conserved and protected, it is
easy to see why. Behind the forest there is an organized community obtaining
the economic benefits of forest production while implementing a series of
activities to protect, conserve and manage that forest.” – Sergio Madrid,
Executive Director of the Civil Council for Sustainable Forestry, Mexico,
quoted in Arbor Day, the newsletter
of the National Arbor Day Foundation, November-December 2004.
“On one point Capitalism and Marxism
agree. They both regard Nature as having no value. Only the man with the
chainsaw produces exchange value, not the speck of chlorophyl high in the
tree.” — Den Ueberlebenden, a German
environmentalist science-fiction novel by Maria J. Pfannholz.
NATURE’S SPIRITUAL AND
MORAL MEANING
“The ‘eco’ in ecology comes from the Greek root oikos, meaning house. The Earth is your
house. You want it to last, so you keep it clean and protect it. At the same
time, you depend on it. The environment, too, will take care of you if you
protect it.” — Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel, Chaminade
University professor,
"The last word in ignorance is
the man who says of an animal or plant, 'What good is it?' If the land
mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it
or not." — Aldo Leopold.
"Anyone can love a mountain, but it takes soul
to love a prairie." — Unknown, quoted by
“The Ten Trusts are: Rejoice that we are part of the
animal kingdom… Respect all life…Open our minds, in humility, to animals and
learn from them …Teach our children to respect and love nature…Be wise stewards
of life on Earth…Value and help preserve the sounds of nature…Refrain from
harming life in order to learn about it…Have the courage of our
convictions…Praise and help those who work for animals and the natural
world…Act knowing we are not alone and live with hope…Coda: after all is said
and done, silence is betrayal.” — Jane Goodall and Mark Bekoff, in their book The Ten Trusts, quoted in the
"On a recent trip to
"If you believe in God, I think it's hard not to
be an environmentalist because you see the environment as the work of
God." —
"In the end, our society will be defined not by
what we create, but what we refuse to destroy." -- John Sawhill, late
president of The Nature Conservancy.
"In wild places, we not only
find clean air, clean water and the natural resources we need, but also solace
from a trying human world, the reawakening of the human body, mind and spirit,
and a connection with our natural heritage." -- Tom Skeele, executive
director, Predator Conservation
"The mark of a truly wealthy nation is not
measured in acres harvested, rivers dammed, oil barrels filled, or mountaintops
mined. Our maturity is most ably displayed by demonstrating mastery over
ourselves. Our willingness to say, 'Enough, these ancient forests cannot be
improved through commodity timber production' honors our nation far more than
engineering an expensive road to harvest an old-growth stand." -- Michael
P. Dombeck, Chief of the Forest Service before the "greed is good"
crowd took over the government, in his letter of resignation to greed-pack leader
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.
"Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of
preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been
blessed. It is a many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists and
nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as
Americans." -- President Richard Nixon, signing
Endangered Species Act, 1973.
"Perhaps this Earth will always be inhabited by
people who want simply to destroy life, people who care more about their ‘fun,’
more about material things, people who have souls that seem only half alive.
But I choose to believe that the day will come when money is not more important
than Nature, when people look on a flower or tree or a hawk flying playfully in
the sky and see a beauty that they know they are a part of, not apart from.
Perhaps living in this time is like living through a drought; every day, you
know you must be one day closer to a wonderful rain shower. And as we have
seen, the rain showers do indeed come." — Lynn Cuny, founder and executive
director of Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation of San Antonio, writing about
the recovery and liberation of a gunshot Red-Tailed Hawk.
"Everybody needs places...where
Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul." -- John
Muir, 1915.
"If a man aspires towards a
righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals." --
Leo N. Tolstoy.
"We stand guard over works of art, but species
representing the work of eons are stolen from under our noses." -- Aldo
Leopold.
"Economics shouldn't drive every decision. Do
you have to have money to have a good quality of life?" -- North Dakota
farmer Doug Graupe, defending the rural way of life against demands for economic
development.
“The
greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be measured by the way in
which its animals are treated.” – Mahatma Gandhi.
"I realize that if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes." – Charles Lindbergh.
“Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt.
Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should
be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another
word for respect for life.” — Elizabeth Goudge.
"Until we extend the circle of
our compassion to all living things, we will not ourselves find peace." — Dr. Albert
Schweitzer.
“In fact, believing in conservation
and defending our wildlife and wild lands may be the ultimate form of American
patriotism, because it goes beyond politics, beyond race, beyond words, symbols
and pledges…it goes straight down to the very land on which we stand, the
physical country of our souls.” — by Jon Schwedler, in
essay titled “Fighting for Your Country: Patriotism and Conservation,” in “The
Home Range,” newsletter of the Predator Conservation
“They never sacrifice any animal for
they can’t imagine a merciful God enjoying slaughter and bloodshed. They say
God gave his creatures life because he wanted them to live.” – Discussion on
the religious beliefs of the Utopians in Utopia, by Sir/St. Thomas More.
“The crisis of humankind in its
roots is not economic but religious, and only a religious reorientation can
bring us a solution. Without a reorientation of our values, without an
ecological ethic, we will not make a single step away from the precipice.” — Den Ueberlebenden, a German
environmentalist science-fiction novel by Maria J. Pfannholz.
“A community without trees is a
community without character.” — Mayor Jennie Stultz,
AMERICAN
INDIAN WISDOM
"Only
after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been
poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you find
that money cannot be eaten." -- Cree Indian prophecy.
“A ‘Christianity’ pugilist commented upon a recent
article of mine, grossly perverting the spirit of my pen. Still I would not
forget that the pale-faced missionary and the hoodooed aborigine are both God's
creatures, though small indeed their own conceptions of Infinite Love. A wee
child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their dogma my excursions into
the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the
twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers.
If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.” — Gertrude Bonnin [Zitkala-Sa] (1876-1938), author and activist
(Yankton Sioux), from "Why I am A Pagan," 1902.
“One does not sell the land people walk on.” — Crazy
Horse (1840-1877),
chief (Oglala Sioux), statement,
”Indians and animals know better how to live than white man; nobody can be in
good health if he does not have all the time fresh air, sunshine, and good
water.” — Flying Hawk (1852-1931), chief (Oglala Sioux).
THE DAMAGE WE’RE DOING –
GENERAL
“You can't
throw it ‘away.’ There is no ‘away.’ The Earth is a closed system.” — Unknown.
“We are
living on this planet as if we had another one to go to.” — Terri Swearingen.
“We are the only species able to change the natural
world and able to understand what we've done, so we must be the stewards of the
world. Otherwise, the world as we know it won't be here.” -- Jane Goodall.
"The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared
long ago, had they happened to be within reach of predatory human hands."
--
"On average the lower 48 states have lost over
60 acres of wetlands for every hour between the 1780s and the 1980s." --
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Report to Congress, 1991.
THE DAMAGE
WE’RE DOING -- CLIMATE CHANGE
“From Shell’s point of view, the debate is over. When
98 percent of scientists agree, who is Shell to say, ‘Let’s debate the
science’? We cannot deal with 50 different policies. We need a national
approach to greenhouse gases.” — John Hofmeister, president, Shell Oil Company.
"The glaciers and icecaps are telling us that
global climate change is here and now, and that the consequences for the global
environment could be sooner and graver than we have imagined. This is about
betting the whole planet and the quality of our existence, not about Chicken
Little." ‑‑Tom Lovejoy, 2000.
"There is absolutely no question that the
climate is warming, sea levels are rising and glaciers are melting. There is no
question humans are involved." Climatologist Robert Watson, chair of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"The scientific consensus...about human‑induced
climate change should sound alarm bells in every national capital and in every
local community. We must move ahead boldly with clean energy technologies and
we should start preparing ourselves for the rising sea levels, changing rain
patterns and other impacts of global warming." -- Klaus Toepfer, head of
United Nations Environment Program.
"We are already in a time of climate change. It
is not a prognosis for the future. The poorest countries, especially in Africa,
will be the real victims." -- Klaus Toepfer, head of United Nations
Environment Program.
"Do you remember all those years when scientists
argued that smoking would kill us but the doubters insisted that we didn't know
for sure? That the evidence was inconclusive, the science
uncertain? That the antismoking lobby was out to destroy our way of life
and the government should stay out of the way? Lots of Americans bought that
malarkey, and over three decades, some 10 million smokers went to early graves.
There are eerie parallels today, as scientists in one wave after another try to
awaken us to the growing threat of global warming....Just as on smoking, voices
now come from many quarters insisting that the science about global warming is
incomlete, that it's okay to keep pouring fumes into the air until we know for
sure. This is a dangerous game: By the time 100 percent of the evidence is in,
it may be too late. With the risks obvious and growing, a prudent peopke would
take out an insurance policy now." -- David Gergen, in
an editorial in U.S. News and World
Report.
"There are fewer and fewer of
them (skeptics) every year. There are very few people in the serious
meteorological community who doubt that the warming is taking place."
William Kellogg, former president of the American Meteorological Society,
quoted in U.S. News and World Report,
Feb. 5, 2001.
"...there truly is minimal
debate among independent scientists that global warming is occurring, that it
will have a large impact on humanity, and that it is indeed largely caused by
humanity....what the vast majority of mainstream international scientists
already know to be true (is): the Earth's temperature
is rising, and the increases are greater than can be explained by natural
variations." — letter to the editor of U.S.
News and World Report, by Dr. Richard W. Murray, Chairman, Department of
Earth Sciences, Boston University, March 19, 2001.
“The debate is over. No matter what
we do to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, we will not be able to avoid some
impacts of climate change." -- Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute
for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, Oakland, Calif., quoted
in U.S. News and World Report, Feb.
5, 2001.
"I've never seen that, never,
never, never." -- Bob Ricklefs, ranching superintendent at Philmont Scout
Ranch, N.M., on National Weather Service rain gauges showing only 29 percent of
normal rainfall during drought.
"A true conservationist is a man
who knows that the world is not given by his fathers but borrowed from his
children."
— John James Audubon (also attributed to the Kenyans, Navajo,
etc.)
“If we do
not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce
food, either.” — Dr. Joseph Wood
Krutch.
“Nowadays it makes more sense to sit down
at a table and work things out…We adapt to changing climate, we adapt to
changing markets, and now we’re adapting to wolves.” — Bill Brownlee, Montana
rancher, in Montana Outdoors
magazine, July-August 2006, reprinted in Keystone Conservation (formerly Predator
Conservation
“We are not going to save species in
zoos. We can only save them by saving wild places….No, zoos are definitely not
arks, but our planet is. Our planet is an ark, and the living things of the
planet are our treasures.” —
Dr. Jeffrey Bonner, President,
“Judge the heart of a man by his
treatment of animals.” — Immanuel Kant.
“Land is a chief; man is its servant.” – Hawaiian
traditional expression.
"Nature's laws affirm instead of prohibit. If
you violate her laws, you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury and
hangman." -- Luther Burbank.
"Apparently, the popular 'private property
rights' argument only applies to the right to destroy the
environment." -- The Predator
Conservation Alliance newsletter, commenting on the Kansas legislature's
refusal to repeal a 1903 law requiring landowners to poison prairie dogs
whether they want to or not.
"While we should all be proud of America's
environmental accomplishments over the past 30 years, without the help of the
rest of the world, they mean nothing. It's a shame that the concept of a global
economy has been embraced over the past few decades, while the more important
global ecosystem has been virtually ignored." -- Steven Yoskowitz, Howell,
N.J., in a letter to the editor of U.S.
News & World Report.
"Not everything that can be measured is
important; not everything that is important can be measured." – Unknown.
"...Truth in science is not determined
democratically. It does not matter what percentage of the public believes a
theory. It must stand or fall on the evidence...." -- Michael Shermer,
publisher of Skeptic magazine, in a
column in Scientific American magazine,
February 2002.
"When competing
'experts' recommend diametrically opposing paths of action regarding resources,
carrying capacity, sustainability, and the future, we serve the cause of
sustainability by choosing the conservative path. This is the path that would
leave society in the less precarious position if the path we choose turns out
to be the wrong path." – Al Bartlett. (That is, if the environmentalists
get their way and are wrong, we forfeit a little economic growth. If the
anti-environmentalists get their way and are wrong, we all die.)
"Society plays an enormous role
in creating the fertile soil for wealth creation, and society has a substantial
claim, particularly on the most wealthy among us. This
is not anti-success. This is pro-responsibility." – William H. Gates Sr.
and co-author Chuck Collins in Wealth and
Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes, quoted by
Jodie T. Allen in U.S. News and
World Report, Aug. 18/25, 2003.
"A plea to sportsmen. Many of
the birds shown in this book are game birds... some are still abundant and will
be for numbers of years: others are very scarce and, if they are further
hunted, will become entirely extinct in two or three years. Bow-whites are very
scarce in New England; prairie hens are becoming scarce in parts of the west;
the small curlew is practically extinct, while the larger ones are rapidly
going. In behalf of all bird lovers, we ask that you refrain from killing those
species that you know are rare, and use moderation in the taking of all others.
We also ask that you use any influence that may be yours to further laws
prohibiting all traffic in birds. The man who makes his living shooting birds
will make more, live longer and die happier, tilling the soil than by killing God's
creatures. We do not, now, ask you to refrain from hunting entirely, but get
your sport at your traps. It takes more skill to break a clay pigeon than to
kill a quail." -- Chester Reed, in introduction to Bird Guide: Water Birds, Game Birds and Birds of Prey, East of the
Rockies, 1910. (Note date: The species at risk may change...but the war for
bird survival never seems to end.)
"As for the world's view that America is greedy
and unconcerned about its effect on the planet, we need look no further than
President Bush's budget speech on Feb. 27. Topping his list of things that
$1,600 in tax relief would buy America's families was 'gas for two cars.'"
-- Lea Barker,
"Life is, in fact, a battle. On
this point optimists and pessimists agree. Evil is insolent and strong; beauty
enchanting but rare; goodness very apt to be weak; folly very apt to be
defiant; wickedness to carry the day; imbeciles to be in very great places,
people of sense in small (ones); and mankind in
general, unhappy." -- Henry James.
"When the first Earth Day was
declared in 1970, dire predictions of air too polluted to breathe and water too
dirty to drink seemed like Orwellian nightmares of a distant and unbelievable
future. Yet bottled water is no longer a luxury in some communities, and health
warnings about air quality during the summer months have become as common as
weather reports." -- Linda
M. Rancourt, Editor in Chief, National Parks, May/June 2001.
"The question of the century
is: how best can we shift to a culture of permanence, both for ourselves and
for the biosphere that sustains us?....The ecological footprint -- the average
amount of productive land and shallow sea appropriated by each person in bits
and pieces from around the world for food, water, housing, energy,
transportation, commerce and waste absorption -- is about 1 hectare (2.5 acres)
in developing nations but about 9.6 hectares (24 acres) in the U.S. The
footprint for the total human population is 2.1 hectares (5.2 acres). For every
person in the world to reach present U.S. levels of consumption with existing
technology would require four more planet Earths." -- Edward O. Wilson,
eminent Harvard biologist and inventor of the term biodiversity, in "The
Bottleneck," Scientific American,
February 2002.
"So tiny, so sweet, so mean and
so smart. I was sitting on my porch and a
hummer flew right across my face and up to an empty feeder. He returned, faced
me eyeball-to-eyeball, flew over to the empty feeder and then back to me.
Taking his soft chirps as hints, I promptly filled the feeders." -- Carl
A. Johnson, Diamond Springs, Calif., letter-to-the-editor, Smithsonian
magazine, November 2000.
"Unfortunately, the studies and
discoveries of (ornithologist Pete) Myers and others have shown that the
long-term survival of even abundant species (of birds) may be in danger.
Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones, Red Knots, Dunlins, White-Rumped, Baird's,
Stilt, Western and Semi-Palmated Sandpipers form enormous concentrations at
certain key staging areas, each critical for
successful migration. Coastal developments have forced the birds into roosting
spots until at one place during high tide 100,000 shorebirds may be packed into
a few hundred yards of beach." -- "The Birding
Scene in July,”
"It's frustrating, though, to be responsible for wild communities that have developed over millions of years and s