Environment Quotes
Environment Quotes
What 4 Brains tell us about how to protect the environment and appease mother nature.
- I would: Put a price on carbon and use the revenue to support mass transit, fast trains, rebuild the grid, support renewable, small and large scale.
- Stop all perverse subsidies, like those to the fossil fuel and auto sectors.
- Cut the defense budget by a quarter – to start.
- Legislate that all products be assessed from cradle to grave with total reuse or recycling of components so there is no waste.
- Begin a program of greater densification in cities built around car-free neighbourhoods, and a massive program of urban farming with citizen gardens, orchards of fruit and nut trees on streets.
- Stop all development of natural land and water and protect farmland.
- End dumping of pollutants or waste into air, water and soil because they are the very things that keep us alive and healthy.
I could go on and on but that is a start.”
David Suzuki is a research scientist, the host of The Nature of Things, and an environmental activist
- “I’d fix the energy-to-emissions ratio. Human societies need energy—turn it off and chaos would result: But if we could fix the ratio without obliterating other life forms, we’d be giving ourselves enough breathing space to tackle other urgent global problems, such as clean water supply, food sufficiency, and the preservation of health-giving natural areas.
- “There are many tools available and in development: globalthermostat.com, high tech solar, etc.—but their rollout will take time.
- “In the short run, the quick, cheap fix is energy-waste reduction, as in for instance—canada.zerochallenge.org.”
Margaret Atwood is an award-winning novelist, poet, and environmental activist.
- “I would fix human attitudes first. Aldo Leopold used to tell his kids when they spent time at the shack to never forget that everything in nature had to do with relationships. Earth to human, human to earth, ultimately our conservation issues today all stem from unhealthy relationships with nature.
- “To mend the web of life we need to fix these relationships. This involves awareness of our moral duty to live rightly on the Earth.”
Cristina Eisenberg is the author of The Wolf’s Tooth and a conservation biologist at Oregon State University, College of Forestry.
- “The present day educational system is brainwashing our children and young people, from age 5-20, into consumerism and materialism. This current system is all about how to conquer and control nature, subjugate her, and exploit her for human gain or profit.
- “For human society to live in harmony with the natural world and in order to create a sustainable and resilient future, I would change the educational system and put the eco system at the heart of education.”
Satish Kumar is a former Jain monk, a nuclear disarmament advocate, and the current editor of Resurgence, a bi-monthly magazine dedicated to the artistic and spiritual aspects of the green movement in Britain.