http://www.drury.edu/multinl/story.cfm?ID=11595&NLID=259
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
~Native American Proverb
"It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment."
~Ansel Adams
"We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap."
~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it."
~ Mark Twain
"It would be helpful if we opened up ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge)[for oil drilling]. I think it's a mistake not to. And I would urge you all to travel up there and take a look at it, and you can make the determination as to how beautiful that country is."
~ George W. Bush, at a White House Press conference, March 29, 2001
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
~ Abraham Lincoln [1864]
"Achieving sustainable development is perhaps one of the most difficult and one of the most pressing goals we face. It requires on the part of all of us commitment, action, partnerships and, sometimes, sacrifices of our traditional life patterns and personal interests".
~ Mostafa Tolba, Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development
"That's human nature. Nobody does anything until it's too late."
~ Michael Crichton
"However fragmented the world, however intense the national rivalries, it is an inexorable fact that we become more interdependent every day. I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal interdependence. The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: We are all in the same boat."
~ Jacques Cousteau, quoted in "National Geographic" [1981]
"The future will be green, or not at all. This truth lies at the heart of humankind's most pressing challenge: to learn to live in harmony with the Earth on a genuinely sustainable basis."
~Sir Jonathon Porritt
"I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?"
~Robert Redford, 1985
"There must be a better way to make the things we want, a way that doesn't spoil the sky, or the rain or the land".
~Sir Paul McCartney
"I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun's energy.... If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago."
~Sir George Porter, The Observer, 26 August 1973
"Sustainability is a condition of existence which enables the present generation of humans and other species to enjoy social wellbeing, a vibrant economy, and a healthy environment, and to experience fulfillment, beauty and joy, without compromising the ability of future generations of humans and other species to enjoy the same."
~Guy Dauncey
"There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed."
~Mohandas K. Gandhi
"There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all."
~Robert Orben
Modern technology
Owes ecology
An apology.
~Alan M. Eddison
"Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find."
~Quoted in Time
"Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we."
~Michel de Montaigne, translated
"Your grandchildren will likely find it incredible - or even sinful - that you burned up a gallon of gasoline to fetch a pack of cigarettes!"
~Dr. Paul MacCready, Jr.
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
~Native American Proverb
"The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun."
~Ralph Nader, quoted in Linda Botts,ed., Loose Talk, 1980
"The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future."
~Marya Mannes, More in Anger, 1958
"The packaging for a microwavable "microwave" dinner is programmed for a shelf life of maybe six months, a cook time of two minutes and a landfill dead-time of centuries."
~David Wann, Buzzworm, November 1990
"Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them."
~Bill Vaughn
"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, Christian Science Monitor, 1990
To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed."
~Theodore Roosevelt, seventh annual message, 3 December 1907
"The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river."
~Ross Perot
"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."
~Edward O. Wilson
"Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. But teach a man how to fish, and he'll be dead of mercury poisoning inside of three years."
~Charles Haas
"You go into a community and they will vote 80 percent to 20 percent in favor of a tougher Clean Air Act, but if you ask them to devote 20 minutes a year to having their car emissions inspected, they will vote 80 to 20 against it. We are a long way in this country from taking individual responsibility for the environmental problem."
~William D. Ruckelshaus, former EPA administrator, New York Times, 30 November 1988
"Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals "love" them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more."
~Edwin Way Teale, Circle of the Seasons, 1953
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
~Native American Proverb
"It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment."
~Ansel Adams
"We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap."
~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it."
~ Mark Twain
"It would be helpful if we opened up ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge)[for oil drilling]. I think it's a mistake not to. And I would urge you all to travel up there and take a look at it, and you can make the determination as to how beautiful that country is."
~ George W. Bush, at a White House Press conference, March 29, 2001
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
~ Abraham Lincoln [1864]
"Achieving sustainable development is perhaps one of the most difficult and one of the most pressing goals we face. It requires on the part of all of us commitment, action, partnerships and, sometimes, sacrifices of our traditional life patterns and personal interests".
~ Mostafa Tolba, Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development
"That's human nature. Nobody does anything until it's too late."
~ Michael Crichton
"However fragmented the world, however intense the national rivalries, it is an inexorable fact that we become more interdependent every day. I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal interdependence. The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: We are all in the same boat."
~ Jacques Cousteau, quoted in "National Geographic" [1981]
"The future will be green, or not at all. This truth lies at the heart of humankind's most pressing challenge: to learn to live in harmony with the Earth on a genuinely sustainable basis."
~Sir Jonathon Porritt
"I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?"
~Robert Redford, 1985
"There must be a better way to make the things we want, a way that doesn't spoil the sky, or the rain or the land".
~Sir Paul McCartney
"I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun's energy.... If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago."
~Sir George Porter, The Observer, 26 August 1973
"Sustainability is a condition of existence which enables the present generation of humans and other species to enjoy social wellbeing, a vibrant economy, and a healthy environment, and to experience fulfillment, beauty and joy, without compromising the ability of future generations of humans and other species to enjoy the same."
~Guy Dauncey
"There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed."
~Mohandas K. Gandhi
"There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all."
~Robert Orben
Modern technology
Owes ecology
An apology.
~Alan M. Eddison
"Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find."
~Quoted in Time
"Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we."
~Michel de Montaigne, translated
"Your grandchildren will likely find it incredible - or even sinful - that you burned up a gallon of gasoline to fetch a pack of cigarettes!"
~Dr. Paul MacCready, Jr.
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
~Native American Proverb
"The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun."
~Ralph Nader, quoted in Linda Botts,ed., Loose Talk, 1980
"The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future."
~Marya Mannes, More in Anger, 1958
"The packaging for a microwavable "microwave" dinner is programmed for a shelf life of maybe six months, a cook time of two minutes and a landfill dead-time of centuries."
~David Wann, Buzzworm, November 1990
"Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them."
~Bill Vaughn
"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, Christian Science Monitor, 1990
To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed."
~Theodore Roosevelt, seventh annual message, 3 December 1907
"The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river."
~Ross Perot
"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."
~Edward O. Wilson
"Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. But teach a man how to fish, and he'll be dead of mercury poisoning inside of three years."
~Charles Haas
"You go into a community and they will vote 80 percent to 20 percent in favor of a tougher Clean Air Act, but if you ask them to devote 20 minutes a year to having their car emissions inspected, they will vote 80 to 20 against it. We are a long way in this country from taking individual responsibility for the environmental problem."
~William D. Ruckelshaus, former EPA administrator, New York Times, 30 November 1988
"Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals "love" them. But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more."
~Edwin Way Teale, Circle of the Seasons, 1953