Portal:Ecology/Selected quote

Selected quote 1

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/1

“ A Healthy Ecology is the Basis for a Healthy Economy. ”

—Claudine Schneider, U.S. Representative in The Green Lifestyle Handbook

Selected quote 2

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/2

“ To halt the decline of an ecosystem, it is necessary to think like an ecosystem. ”

—Douglas P. Wheeler, EPA Journal, September-October 1990

Selected quote 3

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/3

“ The thing the ecologically illiterate don't realize about an ecosystem is that it's a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has order, a flowing from point to point. If something dams the flow, order collapses. The untrained miss the collapse until too late. That's why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences. ” — Frank Herbert
Dune (novel) ("Appendix I: The Ecology of Dune")

Selected quote 4

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/4

“ Don't blow it—good planets are hard to find. ” — Time (magazine)

Selected quote 5

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/5

“ Of all the lands in the world's temperate zones, China has the greatest number of plant species; the eastern United States has the next largest number. ”

—Edwin T. Morris, Author

Selected quote 6

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/6

“ Human beings are made up mostly of water, in roughly the same percentage as water is to the surface of the earth. Our tissues and membranes, our brains and hearts, our sweat and tears—all reflect the same recipe for life, in which efficient use is made of those ingredients available on the surface of the earth. We are 23 percent carbon, 2.6 percent nitrogen, 1.4 percent calcium, 1.1 percent phosphorous, with tiny amounts of roughly three dozen other elements. But above all we are oxygen (61 percent) and hydrogen (10 percent), fused together in the unique molecular combination known as water, which makes up 71 percent of the human body. ”

—Al Gore, Earth in the Balance

Selected quote 7

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/7

“ Every day is Earth Day. ”

—Author unknown

Selected quote 8

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/8

“ Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day. ”

—Anton Chekhov, Uncle Vanya, 1897

Selected quote 9

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/9

“ An acre of windy prairie could produce between $4,000 and 10,000 worth of electricity per year—which is far more than the value of the land’s crop of corn or wheat. ” — Denis Hayes

Selected quote 10

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/10

“ U.S. consumers and industry dispose of enough aluminum to rebuild the commercial air fleet every three months; enough iron and steel to continuously supply all automakers; enough glass to fill New York's World Trade Center every two weeks. ”

—Environmental Defense Fund advertisement, The Christian Science Monitor, 1990

Selected quote 11

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/11

“ No one has the right to use America's rivers and America's waterways, that belong to all the people, as a sewer. The banks of a river may belong to one man or one industry or one state, but the waters which flow between the banks should belong to all the people. ” — Lyndon B. Johnson

Selected quote 12

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/12

“ The environmental movement is one of the most successful social change movements. Popularizing Earth Day celebrations can be credited with bringing the movement to the mainstream. Through grassroots efforts, festivals, fairs, assemblies and concerts have helped popularize concern for our environment in the public's mind. Since so many people participate in Earth Day activities, Earth Day is the perfect opportunity to get people to tap-into the better world movement, so that they can find the inspiration and encouragement to continue activities for a more peaceful, just and sustainable world all year long. ”

—Robert Alan, American Writer, Artist, Social Activist

Selected quote 13

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/13

“ The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. ” — John Muir

Selected quote 14

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/14

“ With our technologies—ones of incalcuable power: earth-restoring, planet preserving—we can rediscover an intimacy, a mutuality with the natural world, that is not primitive (though based in part on fear), but knowing. It might even be possible to relearn a life of awe. And inhabit the landscape without violation. With the least violation. ” — Janet Kauffman

Selected quote 15

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/15

“ Nature does nothing uselessly. ” — Aristotle

Selected quote 16

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/16

“ The problem of climate change is so large that it can't be solved by voluntary individual responses. It requires an economy-wide solution, i.e. one that limits the total carbon intake of the economy. ”

—Peter Barnes

Selected quote 17

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/17

“ Thanks to the growing strength of environmental organizations, there will always be some back country to provide us with a touch of wonder and a breath of fresh air. ”

—Wallace Stegner, 1991

Selected quote 18

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/18

“ I was a Boy Scout, and scouting gave me an appreciation for nature and the outdoors that set the stage for my career as an environmental activist. The other thing would be growing up in Los Angeles-the smog capital of the world for quite a while. ” — Ed Begley Jr.

Selected quote 19

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/19

“ The two most abundant forms of power on earth are solar and wind, and they're getting cheaper and cheaper… ” — Ed Begley Jr.

Selected quote 20

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/20

“ We’re never going to have respectful and reverential relationships with the planet—and sensible policies about what we put in the air, the soil, the water—if very young children don’t begin learning about these things literally in their houses, backyards, streets and schools. We need to have human beings who are oriented that way from their earliest memories. ” — Elise Boulding

Selected quote 21

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/21

“ The role of the market place is to be an instrument of environmental change and policy making. We are all consumers with a great potential for change. Environmental protection begins at home. ”

—Noel Brown, Former Director of the United Nations Environment Programme

Selected quote 22

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/22

“ All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters but little where we go, to highlands or lowlands, woods or plains, on the sea or land or down among the crystals of waves or high in a balloon in the sky; through all the climates, hot or cold, storms and calms, everywhere and always we are in God's eternal beauty and love. So universally true is this, the spot where we chance to be always seems the best. ” — John Muir

Selected quote 23

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/23

“ We can use our scientific knowledge to improve and beautify the earth, or we can use it to ...poison the air, corrupt the waters, blacken the face of the country, and harass our souls with loud and discordant noises, [or]...we can use it to mitigate or abolish all these things. ” — John Burroughs

Selected quote 24

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/24

“ Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain, For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain. America, America, man sheds his waste on thee, And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea. ” — George Carlin

Selected quote 25

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/25

“ The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world--the very nature of its life. ” — Rachel Carson

Selected quote 26

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/26

“ The lasting pleasures of contact with the natural world are not reserved for scientists but are available to anyone who will place himself under the influence of earth, sea and sky and their amazing life. ” — Rachel Carson

Selected quote 27

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/27

“ I want to make it clear, if there is ever a conflict (between environmental quality and economic growth), I will go for beauty, clean air, water, and landscape. ” — Jimmy Carter

Selected quote 28

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/28

“ Acknowledging the physical realities of our planet does not mean a dismal future of endless sacrifice. In fact, acknowledging these realities is the first step in dealing with them. We can meet the resource problems of the world—water, food, minerals, farmlands, forests, overpopulation, pollution—if we tackle them with courage and foresight. ” — Jimmy Carter

Selected quote 29

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/29

“ Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God. ” — George Washington Carver

Selected quote 30

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/30

“ I have never believed we had to choose between either a clean and safe environment or a growing economy. Protecting the health and safety of all Americans doesn’t have to come at the expense of our economy’s bottom line. And creating thriving companies and new jobs doesn’t have to come at the expense of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, or the natural landscape in which we live. We can, and indeed must, have both. ” — Bill Clinton

Selected quote 31

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/31

“ Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day. ” — Anton Chekhov

Selected quote 32

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/32

“ There are no boundaries in the real Planet Earth. No United States, no Soviet Union, no China, no Taiwan.... Rivers flow unimpeded across the swaths of continents. The persistent tides—the pulse of the sea—do not discriminate; they push against all the varied shores on Earth. ” — Jacques Cousteau

Selected quote 33

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/33

“ Everything is connected to everything else. Everything must go somewhere. Nature knows best. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you don't put something in the ecology, it's not there. ” — Barry Commoner

Selected quote 34

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/34

“ As we gain satisfaction from artificial substitutes for nature we forget that there is no known substitute for Nature, the real thing and its eons of intelligent, life supportive, experience. Each substitute we create falls short of nature's balanced perfection, thus producing our pollution, garbage and relationship conflicts. ”

—Michael J. Cohen, Ed.D., Ph.D.

Selected quote 35

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/35

“ It is our collective and individual responsibility to protect and nurture the global family, to support its weaker members and to preserve and tend to the environment in which we all live. ” — Dalai Lama

Selected quote 36

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/36

“ Today's world is one in which the age-old risks of humankind—the drought, floods, communicable diseases—are less of a problem than ever before. They have been replaced by risks of humanity's own making—the unintended side-effects of beneficial technologies and the intended effects of the technologies of war. Society must hope that the world's ability to assess and manage risks will keep pace with its ability to create them. ”

—J. Clarence Davies, Author, Political scientist

Selected quote 37

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/37

“ We must set an example now and move environmentalism from being the philosophy of a passionate minority ... to a way of life that automatically integrates ecology into governmental policy and normal living standards. ” — Leonardo DiCaprio

Selected quote 38

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/38

“ When I was very young, biology, the diversity of life, was one of my main interests. I know there's this image people have that I'm this spoiled, cocky punk of an actor. Honestly, that's not who I am. I really care that so many species have been wiped out, like genocide of entire races. I believe in the divine right of all species to survive on this planet. So I decided I want to be active as an environmentalist. I learned. I asked experts. I got active. ” — Leonardo DiCaprio

Selected quote 39

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/39

“ Our oil-based society depends on non-renewable resources. It requires relentless probing into vast reaches of pristine land, sacrificing vital bioregions, and irreplaceable cultures. The possibility of catastrophic climate change is substantially increased by the 40 million barrels of oil burned every day by vehicles. We must all move shoulder to shoulder in a unified front to show this administration that the true majority of people are willing to vote for a cleaner environment and won't back down. ” — Leonardo DiCaprio

Selected quote 40

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/40

“ The use of plant oil as fuel may seem insignificant today. But such products can in time become just as important as kerosene and these coal-tar-products of today. ”

—Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine, which originally ran on peanut oil

Selected quote 41

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/41

“ The great ecosystems are like complex tapestries—a million complicated threads, interwoven, make up the whole picture. Nature can cope with small rents in the fabric; it can even, after a time, cope with major disasters like floods, fires, and earthquakes. What nature cannot cope with is the steady undermining of its fabric by the activities of man. ” — Gerald Durrell

Selected quote 42

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/42

“ A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. ” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

Selected quote 43

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/43

“ If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live. ” — Albert Einstein

Selected quote 44

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/44

“ The nation behaves well if it treats its natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value. ” — Theodore Roosevelt

Selected quote 45

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/45

“ Ethics that focus on human interactions, morals that focus on humanity's relationship to a Creator, fall short of these things we've learned. They fail to encompass the big take-home message, so far, of a century and a half of biology and ecology: life is—more than anything else—a process; it creates, and depends on, relationships among energy, land, water, air, time and various living things. It's not just about human-to-human interaction; it's not just about spiritual interaction. It's about all interaction. We're bound with the rest of life in a network, a network including not just all living things but the energy and nonliving matter that flows through the living, making and keeping all of us alive as we make it alive. We can keep debating ideologies and sending entreaties toward heaven. But unless we embrace the fuller reality we're in—and reality's implications—we'll face big problems." ” — Carl Safina

Selected quote 46

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/46

“ A forest ecology is a delicate one. If the forest perishes, its fauna may go with it. The Athshean word for world is also the word for forest. ”

—Ursula K. Le Guin, The Word for World is Forest

Selected quote 47

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/47

“ Nearly 97% of the world's water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers. Only 1% can be used for all agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community and personal needs. ”

—American Water Works Association, National Drinking Water Week

Selected quote 48

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/48

“ No one species shall make the life of the world its own.' … That's one expression of the law. Here's another: 'The world was not made for any one species. ”

—Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

Selected quote 49

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/49

“ Compared to forest or aquatic ecosystems, grassland is unstable. It requires rather precise geological and climatic conditions, and if these conditions are not maintained--if too much rain falls, or too little—it quickly turns into forest or desert, both of which are dominated by woody plants. This instability is reflected in the spectacular but brief careers of various grassland faunas. Humanity, with its dazzling symbioses, preadaptations, and neoteny, is the most spectacular of these—and may well be the briefest. ”

—David Rains Wallace, The Klamath Knot: Explorations of Myth and Evolution, Twentieth Anniversary Edition

Selected quote 50

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/50

“ Diversity is a survival factor for the community itself. A community of a hundred million species can survive anything short of total global catastrophe. Within that hundred million will be thousands that could survive a global temperature drop of twenty degrees—which would be a lot more devastating than it sounds. Within that hundred million will be thousands that could survive a global temperature rise of twenty degrees. But a community of a hundred species or a thousand species has almost no survival value at all. ”

—Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

Selected quote 51

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/51

“ The key.. will be a new public awareness of how serious is the threat to the global environment. Those who have a vested interest in the status quo will probably continue to be able to stifle any meaningful change until enough citizens.. are willing to speak out. ” — Al Gore

Selected quote 52

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/52

“ We cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature as well—for we will not fight to save what we do not love. ” — Al Gore

Selected quote 53

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/53

“ We are all together in this, we are all together in this single living ecosystem called planet Earth. As we learn how we fit into the greater scheme of things, and begin to understand how the system works, we can plan ahead, we can use the resources responsibly, to show some respect for this inheritance that goes back 4.6 billion years. ” — Sylvia Earle

Selected quote 54

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/54

“ I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait 'til oil and coal run out before we tackle that. ”

—Thomas Edison, (1847–1931)

Selected quote 55

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/55

“ Since natural resources are finite, increased consumption must inevitably lead to depletion and scarcity. ” — Paul Ehrlich

Selected quote 56

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/56

“ A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole [of] nature in its beauty. ” — Albert Einstein

Selected quote 57

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/57

“ The Earth will continue to regenerate its life sources only as long as we and all the peoples of the world do our part to conserve its natural resources. It is a responsibility which every human being shares. Through voluntary action, each of us can join in building a productive land in harmony with nature. ” — Gerald Ford

Selected quote 58

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/58

“ When we protect the places where the processes of life can flourish, we strengthen not only the future of medicine, agriculture and industry, but also the essential conditions for peace and prosperity. ” — Harrison Ford

Selected quote 59

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/59

“ Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value. ” — R. Buckminster Fuller

Selected quote 60

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/60

“ We mistakenly admire the person who has toured the greater Wonders of the World, and ignore those that seek out the little pockets of nature. Yet those that look close possess a greater understanding of the oneness of nature; when they do finally face the grand and beautiful panoramas they know them in a much deeper way. They full understand the connection between the grandest mountain and the smallest blade of grass, and how each is dependant upon, and a reflection of, the other. ”

—Tom Brown

Selected quote 61

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/61

“ We need a new environmental consciousness on a global basis. To do this, we need to educate people. ” — Mikhail Gorbachev

Selected quote 62

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/62

“ There are some who frankly and boldly advocate the eradication of the last remnants of wilderness and the complete subjugation of nature to the requirements of—not man—but industry. This is a courageous view, admirable in its simplicity and power, and with the weight of all modern history behind it. It is also quite insane. I cannot attempt to deal with it here. ” — Edward Abbey

Selected quote 63

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/63

“ Over the long haul of life on this planet, it is the ecologists, and not the bookkeepers of business, who are the ultimate accountants. ” — Stewart Udall

Selected quote 64

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/64

“ And so when we talk about intangible values remember that they cannot be separated from the others. The conservation of waters, forests, soils, and wildlife are all involved with the conservation of the human spirit. The goal we all strive toward is happiness, contentment, the dignity of the individual, and the good life. This goal will elude us forever if we forget the importance of the intangibles. ” — Sigurd F. Olson

Selected quote 65

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/65

“ Ecology is beginning to slowly shift focus with tentative explorations of what the world would look like if process, rather than matter were the basis for reality What if we defined a species in terms of its life processes? We might seriously doubt whether the California condor or the tall grass prairie can be 'saved' or even 'restored.' Perhaps we can re-create some local conditions that foster a few nests of condors or a few acres of prairie. But the life process of the condor ended with the urbanization of the California foothills and the living ebb and flow of the tall grass prairies died with the plowing of the Great Plains. What if we suggested that a thing is what it does? In this light, the Rocky Mountain locust was a immense aperiodic energy flow that linked life processes on a continental scale. ” — Jeffrey A. Lockwood

Selected quote 66

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/66

“ For many of us, water simply flows from a faucet, and we think little about it beyond this point of contact. We have lost a sense of respect for the wild river, for the complex workings of a wetland, for the intricate web of life that water supports. ” — Sandra Postel

Selected quote 67

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/67

“ To secure our environmental legacy for future generations, we must find ways to reconcile humanity more satisfactorily with the natural systems upon which all human life and civilizations depend. We must recognize that the natural systems of which we are part have an intrinsic worth transcending narrow utilitarian values. They must be preserved for their own sake. No philosopher or religious thinker has been more sensitive to this intimate relationship between humanity and nature than St. Francis of Assisi. The powerful contemporary environmental tradition of preservation, of reverence for wilderness and protection for all living things - the ideal that sees, as John Muir said, ‘in God’s wildness... the hope of the world’ - virtually began with St. Francis. ” — William K. Reilly

Selected quote 68

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/68

“ I used to think of the environment as trees and blue sky. Then I learned that for some people, the environment is gangs and concrete. All the issues that we face are connected. Worldwide, ecosystems are being destroyed, and indigenous peoples are losing their homelands and their entire way of life. Three out of every five African-Americans and Latinos in the US lives in a community with a toxic waste site. As long as pollution is being produced, it's going to go somewhere, and as long as there are marginalized communities where land is cheaper and the people don't have the time or the money to fight back, polluters will have a place to deposit toxins. As long as people and the planet are being exploited, and billions of dollars are being made precisely because laborers and the environment are being abused and used up, there will be children going hungry and ecological destruction. As long as war and violence are in our hearts and our streets as well as in our nations, as long as corporate greed and unsustainable consumption are at the forefront of our economies, no child will be born into a truly safe, peaceful or loving world. ”

—Ocean Robbins, founder of YES! — “Helping Visionary Young Leaders Build A Better World”

Selected quote 69

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/69

“ It's very important that we expand our use of clean energy and make a long-term commitment to it. Biodiesel and ethanol are better for the environment and for the air we breathe. The use of biodiesel is a positive step toward minimizing pollutive emissions and greenhouse gases. By focusing on school buses, we can affect the health and well-being of the people most susceptible to that pollution—our children—today. ” — Julia Roberts

Selected quote 70

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/70

“ The primary threat to nature and people today comes from centralising and monopolising power and control. Not until diversity is made the logic of production will there be a chance for sustainability, justice and peace. Cultivating and conserving diversity is no luxury in our times: it is a survival imperative. ” — Vandana Shiva

Selected quote 71

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/71

“ The cleanup costs of polluting a river, injecting pesticides into the ground water, or putting noxious gases into the air have not been figured into the cost of the manufacturing or agribusiness that put them there in the first place. Historically, the economic incentive has been to pollute. ” — Gloria Steinem

Selected quote 72

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/72

“ A land ethic for tomorrow should be as honest as Thoreau's Walden, and as comprehensive as the sensitive science of ecology. It should stress the oneness of our resources and the live-and-help-live logic of the great chain of life. ” — Stewart Udall

Selected quote 73

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/73

“ A diverse ecosystem will also be resilient, because it contains many species with overlapping ecological functions that can partially replace one another. When a particular species is destroyed by a severe disturbance so that a link in the network is broken, a diverse community will be able to survive and reorganize itself... In other words, the more complex the network is, the more complex its pattern of interconnections, the more resilient it will be. ” — Fritjof Capra

Selected quote 74

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/74

“ An agricultural adage says the tiny animals that live below the surface of a healthy pasture weigh more than the cows grazing above it. In a catalogue selling composting equipment I read that two handfuls of healthy soil contain more living organisms than there are people on the earth. What these beings are and what they can be doing is difficult to even begin to comprehend, but it helps to realize that even though they are many, they work as one. ”

—Carol Williams, Bringing a Garden to Life, 1998

Selected quote 75

Portal:Ecology/Selected quote/75

“ By 2025, at least 3.5 billion people—about half the world's populations—will live in areas without enough water for agriculture, industry, and human needs... Worldwide, water quality conditions appear to have degraded in almost all regions with intensive agriculture and in large urban and industrial areas. ” — World Resources Institute