# Quotes about ecology - Quotes: 222 - Authors: 87 - Broader topic: [Quotes about nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.json ## Quotes > I no longer think of what we’re doing as a blunder. We’re not destroying the world because we’re clumsy. We’re destroying the world because we are, in a very literal and deliberate way, at war with it. [Daniel Quinn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn.md) · [Ishmael](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/ishmael.md) · p. 130 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/ishmael/i-no-longer.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with people. Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world. But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact in which they are the lords of the world, they will act like lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now. [Daniel Quinn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn.md) · [Ishmael](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/ishmael.md) · p. 84 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/ishmael/theres-nothing-fundamentally.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [stories](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories.md) > The three billion crawl about, all over the helpless earth, destroying and defiling, killing the forests, polluting the air with smoke and radioactive dust and the torturing noises of the machine. In place of meadows, filling stations. The lakes are puddles of human filth. Two years ago the whole area of San Francisco Harbor was covered with dead fish: even the ocean is sick from the human taint, and this they call progress. [Edgar Pangborn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn.md) · [A Mirror for Observers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers.md) · p. 201 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers/the-three-billion.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The problem is that man’s conquest of the world has itself devastated the world. [Daniel Quinn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn.md) · [Ishmael](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/ishmael.md) · p. 80 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-quinn/ishmael/the-problem-is-that.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Human beings have never been very adult about cleaning up after themselves. [Edgar Pangborn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn.md) · [A Mirror for Observers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers.md) · p. 75 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers/human-beings-have.md) Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Restoration is a powerful antidote to despair. Restoration offers concrete means by which humans can once again enter into positive, creative relationship with the more-than-human world, meeting responsibilities that are simultaneously material and spiritual. It’s not enough to grieve. It’s not enough to just stop doing bad things. [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md) · [Braiding Sweetgrass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass.md) · p. 328 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/restoration-is-a-powerful.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [despair](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/despair.md) > We are deluged by information regarding our destruction of the world and hear almost nothing about how to nurture it. It is no surprise then that environmentalism becomes synonymous with dire predictions and powerless feelings. Our natural inclination to do right by the world is stifled, breeding despair when it should be inspiring action. The participatory role of people in the well-being of the land has been lost, our reciprocal relations reduced to a Keep Out sign. [...] People do know the consequences of our collective damage, they do know the wages of an extractive economy, but they don’t stop. They get very sad, they get very quiet. So quiet that protection of the environment that enables them to eat and breathe and imagine a future for their children doesn’t even make it onto a list of their top ten concerns. The Haunted Hayride of dumps, the melting glaciers, the litany of doomsday projections—they move anyone who is still listening only to despair. Despair is paralysis. It robs us of agency. It blinds us to our own power and the power of the earth. [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md) · [Braiding Sweetgrass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass.md) · p. 327 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/we-are-deluged.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [despair](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/despair.md) > Plants are the first restoration ecologists. They are using their gifts for healing the land, showing us the way. [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md) · [Braiding Sweetgrass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass.md) · p. 332 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/plants-are-the.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Restoration is imperative for healing the earth, but reciprocity is imperative for long-lasting, successful restoration. Like other mindful practices, ecological restoration can be viewed as an act of reciprocity in which humans exercise their caregiving responsibility for the ecosystems that sustain them. We restore the land, and the land restores us. [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md) · [Braiding Sweetgrass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass.md) · p. 336 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/restoration-is-imperative.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Until we can grieve for our planet we cannot love it—grieving is a sign of spiritual health. But it is not enough to weep for our lost landscapes; we have to put our hands in the earth to make ourselves whole again. Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift. [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md) · [Braiding Sweetgrass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass.md) · p. 327 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/until-we-can.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [joy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/joy.md), [grief](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/grief.md) > In weaving well-being for land and people, we need to pay attention to the lessons of the three rows. Ecological well-being and the laws of nature are always the first row. Without them, there is no basket of plenty. Only if that first circle is in place can we weave the second. The second reveals material welfare, the subsistence of human needs. Economy built upon ecology. But with only two rows in place, the basket is still in jeopardy of pulling apart. It’s only when the third row comes that the first two can hold together. Here is where ecology, economics, and spirit are woven together. By using materials as if they were a gift, and returning that gift through worthy use, we find balance. I think that third row goes by many names: Respect. Reciprocity. All Our Relations. I think of it as the spirit row. Whatever the name, the three rows represent recognition that our lives depend on one another, human needs being only one row in the basket that must hold us all. In relationship, the separate splints become a whole basket, sturdy and resilient enough to carry us into the future. [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md) · [Braiding Sweetgrass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass.md) · p. 152 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/in-weaving-well-being.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [respect](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/respect.md) > We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world. We need to restore honor to the way we live, so that when we walk through the world we don't have to avert our eyes with shame, so that we can hold our heads up high and receive the respectful acknowledgment of the rest of the earth's beings. [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md) · [Braiding Sweetgrass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass.md) · p. 195 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/we-need-acts.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [honour](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honour.md) > Look at the legacy of poor Eve's exile from Eden: the land shows the bruises of an abusive relationship. It’s not just land that is broken, but more importantly, our relationship to land. [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md) · [Braiding Sweetgrass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass.md) · p. 9 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/look-at-the.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > For all of us, becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children's future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it. [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md) · [Braiding Sweetgrass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass.md) · p. 9 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/for-all-of-us-becoming.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [the future](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future.md) > Regenerative economies that reciprocate the gift are the only path forward. To replenish the possibility of mutual flourishing, for birds and berries and people, we need an economy that shares the gifts of the Earth, following the lead of our oldest teachers, the plants. They invite us all into the circle to give our human gifts in return for all we are given. How will we answer? [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md) · [The Serviceberry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/the-serviceberry.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/the-serviceberry/regenerative-economies-that.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [generosity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/generosity.md) > If ever a society could be said to meet all the mythological criteria of the next lost civilization—a society that ticks all the boxes—is it not obvious that it is our own? Our pollution and neglect of the majestic garden of the earth, our rape of its resources, our abuse of the oceans and the rainforests, our fear, hatred and suspicion of one another multiplied by a hundred bitter regional and sectarian conflicts, our consistent track record of standing by and doing nothing while millions suffer, our ignorant, narrow-minded racism, our exclusivist religions, our forgetfulness that we are all brothers and sisters, our bellicose chauvinism, the dreadful cruelties that we indulge in, in the name of nation, or faith, or simple greed, our obsessive, competitive, ego-driven production and consumption of material goods and the growing conviction of many, fuelled by the triumphs of materialist science, that matter is all there is—that there is no such thing as spirit, that we are just accidents of chemistry and biology—all these things, and many more, in mythological terms at least, do not look good for us. [Graham Hancock](https://www.leafyquotes.com/graham-hancock.md) · [Magicians of the Gods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/graham-hancock/magicians-of-the-gods.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/graham-hancock/magicians-of-the-gods/if-ever-a-society.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [civilization](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization.md), [cruelty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty.md) > The impact of fungal diseases is increasing across the world: Unsustainable agricultural practices reduce the ability of plants to form relationships with the beneficial fungi on which they depend. The widespread use of antifungal chemicals has led to an unprecedented rise in new fungal superbugs that threaten both human and plant health. [Merlin Sheldrake](https://www.leafyquotes.com/merlin-sheldrake.md) · [Entangled Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/merlin-sheldrake/entangled-life.md) · p. 8 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/merlin-sheldrake/entangled-life/the-impact-of-fungal.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > I pointed out that, according to Bev, half the ecological disasters in the world occurred when people removed “pests” or predators without thinking through the consequences. [Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [Lies Sleeping](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/lies-sleeping.md) · p. 147 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/lies-sleeping/i-pointed-out.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The solution to global warming is not to fix the world, but to fix ourselves. [Naomi Klein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein.md) · [This Changes Everything](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein/this-changes-everything.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein/this-changes-everything/the-solution-to-global.md) Topics: [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Climate change demands that we consume less, but being consumers is all we know. Climate change is not a problem that can be solved simply by changing what we buy—a hybrid instead of an SUV, some carbon offsets when we get on a plane. At its core, it is a crisis born of overconsumption by the comparatively wealthy, which means the world’s most manic consumers are going to have to consume less. [Naomi Klein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein.md) · [This Changes Everything](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein/this-changes-everything.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein/this-changes-everything/climate-change-demands.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [consumerism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism.md) > As environmental author Kenneth Brower writes, ‘The notion that science will save us is the chimera that allows the present generation to consume all the resources it wants, as if no generations will follow. It is the sedative that allows civilization to march so steadfastly toward environmental catastrophe. It forestalls the real solution, which will be in the hard, nontechnical work of changing human behavior. p. 289 [Naomi Klein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein.md) · [This Changes Everything](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein/this-changes-everything.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein/this-changes-everything/as-environmental-author.md) Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > New breakthrough technologies can make it easier, but we've already got, right now, everything we need to accomplish the task of transforming our energy economy away from fossil fuels. Except the willingness. [Greg Craven](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-craven.md) · [What's the Worst That Could Happen?](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-craven/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen.md) · p. 218 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-craven/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/new-breakthrough-technologies.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Even depressions end. Climate chaos may not. [Greg Craven](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-craven.md) · [What's the Worst That Could Happen?](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-craven/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen.md) · p. 195 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-craven/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/even-depressions-end.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Earth has been regarded for centuries as a giant self-regulating machine, absorbing all changes, great and small, and diluting their effects until they become invisible on a global scale. Mankind has taken that stability for granted. Careless of consequences, we have watched as forests were cleared, lakes poisoned, rivers dammed and diverted, mountains leveled, whole plains dug out for their mineral and fuel content. And nothing disastrous happened. Earth tolerated the insults, and always she restored the status quo. > > Always—until now. Until finally some hidden critical point has been passed. The move away from a steady state is signalled in many ways: by increasing ocean temperatures, by drought and flood, by widespread loss of topsoil, by massive crop failure, and by the collapse of worldwide fishing industries. [Charles Sheffield](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield.md) · [Between the Strokes of Night](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/between-the-strokes-of-night.md) · p. 69 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/between-the-strokes-of-night/earth-has-been.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > “Do you realize that you will not only wreck your civilization, such as it is, and kill most of your people; but that you will also poison the fish in your rivers, the squirrels in your trees, the flocks of birds, the soil, the water? There are times when you seem, to us, like apes loose in a museum, carrying knives, slashing the canvases, breaking the statuary with hammers.” > > For a moment Bryce did not speak. Then he said, “But it was human beings who painted the pictures, made the statues.” > > “Only a few human beings,” Newton said. “Only a few.” [Walter Tevis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis.md) · [The Man Who Fell to Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/the-man-who-fell-to-earth.md) · p. 159 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/the-man-who-fell-to-earth/do-you-realize.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md) > There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. Everybody's crew. [Marilyn Ferguson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson.md) · [The Aquarian Conspiracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson/the-aquarian-conspiracy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson/the-aquarian-conspiracy/there-are-no-passengers.md) Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [cooperation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cooperation.md) > Rupert did not understand why the parasites in cities did not understand the most fundamental tenet of nature - that a parasite eventually kills its host. Did these people not know that if they continued to feed and spread and grow, with the tendrils of their greed wrapping themselves around their host, the day would come when it could no longer sustain them and when it died they would too? [Shamini Flint](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shamini-flint.md) · [Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shamini-flint/inspector-singh-investigates-a-most-peculiar-malaysian-murder.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shamini-flint/inspector-singh-investigates-a-most-peculiar-malaysian-murder/rupert-did-not.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [greed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed.md) > The Great Change is when humankind accepts its role as part of the natural order of the universe instead of its role as a cancer. [Dan Simmons](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-simmons.md) · [The Fall of Hyperion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-simmons/the-fall-of-hyperion.md) · p. 369 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-simmons/the-fall-of-hyperion/the-great-change.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > is a path to enlightenment through compassion for all beings. Jivamukti is a Sanskrit word that means to live liberated in joyful, musical harmony with the Earth. The Earth does not belong to us—we belong to the Earth. Let us celebrate our connection to life by not enslaving animals and exploiting the Earth, and attain freedom and happiness for ourselves in the process. For surely, the best way to uplift our own lives is to do all we can to uplift the lives of others. Go vegan! [Sharon Gannon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sharon-gannon.md) · [Simple Recipes for Joy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sharon-gannon/simple-recipes-for-joy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sharon-gannon/simple-recipes-for-joy/is-a-path.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [veganism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/veganism.md) > Don't believe... that our ancestors lived in harmony with nature. Long before the Industrial Revolution, Homo sapiens held the record... for driving the most plant and animal species to... extinctions. We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology. [Yuval Noah Harari](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari.md) · [Sapiens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens/dont-believe-that.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Planet Earth was separated into several ecosystems, each made up of a unique assembly of animals and plants. Homo sapiens was about to put an end to this biological exuberance. [Yuval Noah Harari](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari.md) · [Sapiens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens/planet-earth-was.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > the very idea that we, as atomized individuals, even lots of atomized individuals, could play a significant part in stabilizing the planet's climate system or changing the global economy is objectively nuts. We can only meet this tremendous challenge together, as part of a massive and organized global movement. [Naomi Klein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein.md) · [On Fire](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein/on-fire.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein/on-fire/the-very-idea.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [community](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/community.md) > Auger could not help marvelling at the experience of being inside the ALS sphere and seeing her world as it should have been. This was an earth that had never known nuclear war, or runaway climatic catastrophe, or smart weather, or a Nanocaust. The sight of it made her want to weep. No image had ever come close to the heartbreaking beauty of this small blue world, a beauty all the more acute now that she knew how exquisitely fragile it was. It was the beauty of a butterfly’s wing. [Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md) · [Century Rain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/century-rain.md) · p. 596 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/century-rain/auger-could-not.md) Topics: [beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > We have known about the dangers we pose to ourselves for decades and yet we continue sleepwalking toward a grim future, somehow numb to what it will mean for our children and theirs. Almost every depiction of our world's future in popular culture is a dystopian vision of a planet piled high with garbage, a ruined wasteland. They are accurate reflections of the fear in our hearts. But if dreams are maps, could a great dream of our future possibly help us find our way out of this nightmare? [Ann Druyan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan.md) · [Cosmos: Possible Worlds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan/cosmos-possible-worlds.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan/cosmos-possible-worlds/we-have-known.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [the future](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future.md) > We all feel the chill our present casts on our future. Some part of us knows that we must awaken to action or doom our children to dangers and hardships we ourselves have never had to face. How do we rouse ourselves and keep from sleepwalking into a climate or a nuclear catastrophe that may not be reversed before it has destroyed our civilization and countless other species? How do we learn to value those things we cannot live without-air, water, the sustaining fabric of life on Earth, the future-more than we prize money and short-term convenience? Nothing less than a global spiritual awakening can transform us into who we must become. [Ann Druyan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan.md) · [Cosmos: Possible Worlds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan/cosmos-possible-worlds.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan/cosmos-possible-worlds/we-all-feel.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The possible world that excites me the most-the future we can still have on this one. The misuse of science endangers our civilization, but science also has redemptive powers. It can cleanse a planetary atmosphere overburdened with carbon dioxide. It can set life free to neutralize the toxins that we have scattered so carelessly. In a society that aspires to become a democracy, a conscious and motivated public can will this possible world into existence. [Ann Druyan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan.md) · [Cosmos: Possible Worlds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan/cosmos-possible-worlds.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan/cosmos-possible-worlds/the-possible-world.md) Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Looked at from the point of view of other organisms, humankind resembles an acute epidemic disease, whose occasional lapses into less virulent forms of behavior have never yet sufficed to permit any really stable, chronic relationship to establish itself. [William H. McNeill](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-h-mcneill.md) · [Plagues and Peoples](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-h-mcneill/plagues-and-peoples.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-h-mcneill/plagues-and-peoples/looked-at-from.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Earth was their mother, but her land and water could never be desecrated; blasted open and polluted by man, but never desecrated. Man only desecrated himself in such acts; puny humans could not affect the integrity of Earth. Earth always was and would ever be sacred. Mother Earth might be ravaged by the Destroyers, but she still loved the people. (Part Five, Book One: The Foes) [Leslie Marmon Silko](https://www.leafyquotes.com/leslie-marmon-silko.md) · [Almanac of the Dead](https://www.leafyquotes.com/leslie-marmon-silko/almanac-of-the-dead.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/leslie-marmon-silko/almanac-of-the-dead/earth-was-their.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > “Earth, Earth,” the short, alien Carmody mused. “I think I remember the name now. There was a recent study of isolated worlds and the peculiarities of their development. Earth was mentioned as a planet covered with an obsessively overproductive species. Object manipulation is their outstanding modality. Their project is an attempt to live in their own, ever-accumulating waste products. In short, Earth is diseased place. I believe it is being phased out of the Galactic Master Plan on the basis of chronic cosmic incompatibility. The place will then be rehabilitated and turned into a refuge for daffodils.” [Robert Sheckley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-sheckley.md) · [Dimension of Miracles](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-sheckley/dimension-of-miracles.md) · p. 29 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-sheckley/dimension-of-miracles/earth-earth-the.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [consumerism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism.md) > Profit, Empire, Industry. What was a dead lake, a few poisoned rivers, a few slagged hillsides? Priorities, that was what it was about. Priorities and Progress. [Ian McDonald](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald.md) · [Desolation Road](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/desolation-road.md) · p. 276 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/desolation-road/profit-empire-industry.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [greed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed.md) > The laws of economics are subject to the laws of physics. The physical processes that govern this planet and the continued life upon it place as stringent an upper limit on economic growth as the speed of light does on our knowledge of the universe. [Ian McDonald](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald.md) · [River of Gods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/river-of-gods.md) · p. 93 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-mcdonald/river-of-gods/the-laws-of-economics.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > No one can buy his share of "clean air" in the market; one has to use communal mechanisms in order to deal with pollution. [Daniel A. Bell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell.md) · [The Cultural Contradictions Of Capitalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell/the-cultural-contradictions-of-capitalism.md) · p. 196 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-a-bell/the-cultural-contradictions-of-capitalism/no-one-can.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > If 22 bushels (1,300 pounds) of rice and 22 bushels of winter grain are harvested from a quarter acre field such as one of these, then the field will support five to ten people each investing an average of less than one hour of labor per day. But if the field were turned over to pasturage, or if the grain were fed to cattle, only one person could be supported per quarter acre. Meat becomes a luxury food when its production requires land which could provide food directly for human consumption. This has been shown clearly and definitely. Each person should ponder seriously how much hardship he is causing by indulging in food so expensively produced. [Masanobu Fukuoka](https://www.leafyquotes.com/masanobu-fukuoka.md) · [The One-Straw Revolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/masanobu-fukuoka/the-one-straw-revolution.md) · p. 103 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/masanobu-fukuoka/the-one-straw-revolution/if-22-bushels.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [veganism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/veganism.md), [food](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/food.md) > When we say that “the world has ended,” remember—it is usually a lie. The planet is just fine. [N. K. Jemisin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin.md) · [The Stone Sky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-stone-sky.md) · p. 2 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-stone-sky/when-we-say.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > In our Gaian world, everything is connected to and influences everything else. [Tim Flannery](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-flannery.md) · [The Weather Makers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-flannery/the-weather-makers.md) · p. 160 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-flannery/the-weather-makers/in-our-gaian.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Kyoto questions the philosophies underpinning societies such as America and Australia, which cling to the myth of limitless growth. [Tim Flannery](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-flannery.md) · [The Weather Makers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-flannery/the-weather-makers.md) · p. 237 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-flannery/the-weather-makers/kyoto-questions-the.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [consumerism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism.md) > This problem may not occur for several hundred years, but by the time we see the first signs, it will be far too late to do anything about it. [Tim Flannery](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-flannery.md) · [The Weather Makers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-flannery/the-weather-makers.md) · p. 186 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-flannery/the-weather-makers/this-problem-may.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [climate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/climate.md) > We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying. [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [Last Chance to See](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see.md) · p. 68 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see/we-are-not.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > It’s easy to think that as a result of the extinction of the dodo, we are now sadder and wiser, but there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that we are merely sadder and better informed. [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [Last Chance to See](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see.md) · p. 205 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see/its-easy-to-think.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Wildlife conservation is always a race against time. As zoologists and botanists explore new areas, scrabbling to record the mere existence of species before they become extinct, it is like someone hurrying through a burning library desperately trying to jot down some of the titles of books that will now never be read. [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [Last Chance to See](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see.md) · p. 211 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see/wildlife-conservation-is-always.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md) > But while nature has considerable resilience, there is a limit to how far that resilience can be stretched. No one knows how close to the limit we are getting. The darker it gets, the faster we’re driving. [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [Last Chance to See](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see.md) · p. 213 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see/but-while-nature.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Up until that point [the extinction of the dodo] it hadn’t really clicked with man that an animal could just cease to exist. It was as if we hadn’t realised that if we kill something, it simply won’t be there any more. Ever. As a result of the extinction of the dodo we are sadder and wiser. [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [Last Chance to See](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see.md) · p. 204 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see/up-until-that.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md) > A planet could take pretty good care of itself, he thought, if people would only leave it alone. [H. Beam Piper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/h-beam-piper.md) · [The Complete Paratime](https://www.leafyquotes.com/h-beam-piper/the-complete-paratime.md) · p. 209 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/h-beam-piper/the-complete-paratime/a-planet-could.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The symbol for the Environment Ministry is the eye of a tortoise, for the long view—the understanding that nothing comes cheap or quickly without a hidden cost. [Paolo Bacigalupi](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paolo-bacigalupi.md) · [The Windup Girl](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paolo-bacigalupi/the-windup-girl.md) · p. 121 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paolo-bacigalupi/the-windup-girl/the-symbol-for.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [patience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/patience.md) > Food should come from the place of its origin, and stay there. It shouldn’t spend its time crisscrossing the globe for the sake of profit. We went down that path once, and it brought us to ruin. [Paolo Bacigalupi](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paolo-bacigalupi.md) · [The Windup Girl](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paolo-bacigalupi/the-windup-girl.md) · p. 93 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paolo-bacigalupi/the-windup-girl/food-should-come.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > You wanna know who lost World War Z? Whales. I guess they never really had a chance, not with several million hungry boat people and half the world's navies converted to fishing fleets. [...] So the next time someone tries to tell you about how the true losses of this war are "our innocence" or "part of our humanity"... Whatever, bro. Tell it to the whales. [Max Brooks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-brooks.md) · [World War Z](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-brooks/world-war-z.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-brooks/world-war-z/you-wanna-know.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md) > An idea, a relationship, can go extinct, just like an animal or a plant. The idea in this case is 'nature,' the separate and wild province, the world apart from man to which he adapted, under whose rules he was born and died. In the past, we spoiled and polluted parts of that nature, inflicted environmental 'damage.' But that was like stabbing a man with toothpicks: though it hurt, annoyed, degraded, it did not touch vital organs, block the path of lymph or blood. We never thought that we had wrecked nature. Deep down, we never really thought we could: it was too big and too old; its forces—the wind, the rain, the sun—were too strong, too elemental. But, quite by accident, it turned out that the carbon dioxide and other gases we were producing in our pursuit of a better life... could alter the power of the sun, could increase its heat. And that increase could change the patterns of moisture and dryness, breed storms in new places, breed deserts...We have produced the carbon dioxide—we are ending nature. [Bill McKibben](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-mckibben.md) · [The End of Nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-mckibben/the-end-of-nature.md) · p. 41 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-mckibben/the-end-of-nature/an-idea-a-relationship.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The greenhouse effect is a more apt name than those who coined it imagined. The carbon dioxide and trace gases act like the panes of glass on a greenhouse—the analogy is accurate. But it's more than that. We have built a greenhouse, 'a human creation' where once there bloomed a sweet and wild garden. [Bill McKibben](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-mckibben.md) · [The End of Nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-mckibben/the-end-of-nature.md) · p. 78 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-mckibben/the-end-of-nature/the-greenhouse-effect.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Are we not natural creatures? Are we not evolved, too? Surely all the lessons we’ve learned in the past century come to a single point: we have to stop thinking of ourselves as somehow apart from nature, and recognise that we’re inseparable from it. [John Brunner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner.md) · [The Stone That Never Came Down](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-stone-that-never-came-down.md) · p. 132 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-stone-that-never-came-down/are-we-not.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [evolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evolution.md) > Like living creatures, automobiles expired when their environment became saturated with their own excreta. We ourselves are living creatures. We don't want the same to happen to us. [John Brunner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner.md) · [Stand On Zanzibar](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar.md) · p. 12 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar/like-living-creatures.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Their lusts had known no limit until now. They had gorged themselves, surpassed their own imaginings again and again, recklessly squandering what they had supposed to be inexhaustible; they had been like children in a house filled with sweetmeats, destroying what they could not consume. Until now. > > Now it was as though the planet itself was sick of their arrogance. [John Brunner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner.md) · [The Atlantic Abomination](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-atlantic-abomination.md) · p. 5 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-atlantic-abomination/their-lusts-had.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [greed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed.md), [arrogance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/arrogance.md) > There always will be limits to growth. They can be self-imposed. If they aren't, they will be system-imposed. No physical entity can grow forever. If company managers, city governments, the human population do not choose and enforce their own limits to keep growth within the capacity of the supporting environment, then the environment will choose and enforce limits. [Donella H. Meadows](https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows.md) · [Thinking in Systems](https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows/thinking-in-systems.md) · p. 103 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows/thinking-in-systems/there-always-will.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Growth has costs as well as benefits, and we typically don't count the costs – among which are poverty and hunger, environmental destruction, and so on – the whole list of problems that we are trying to solve with growth! What is needed is much slower growth, very different kinds of growth, and in some cases no growth or negative growth. The world's leaders are correctly fixated on economic growth as the answer to virtually all problems, but they're pushing it with all their might in the wrong direction. [Donella H. Meadows](https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows.md) · [Thinking in Systems](https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows/thinking-in-systems.md) · p. 146 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows/thinking-in-systems/growth-has-costs.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [economy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/economy.md) > Those who claim to care about the wellbeing of human beings and the preservation of our environment should become vegetarians for that reason alone. They would thereby increase the amount of grain available to feed people elsewhere, reduce pollution, save water and energy, and cease contributing to the clearing of forests; moreover, since a vegetarian diet is cheaper than one based on meat dishes, they would have more money available to devote to famine relief, population control, or whatever social or political cause they thought most urgent. … when nonvegetarians say that “human problems come first” I cannot help wondering what exactly it is that they are doing for human beings that compels them to continue to support the wasteful, ruthless exploitation of farm animals. [Peter Singer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-singer.md) · [Animal Liberation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-singer/animal-liberation.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-singer/animal-liberation/those-who-claim.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [vegetarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/vegetarianism.md) > Another aspect of the collective dysfunction of the human mind is the unprecedented violence that humans are inflicting on other lifeforms and the planet itself – the destruction of oxygen producing forests and other plant and animal life; ill treatment of animals in factory farms; and poisoning of rivers, oceans, and air. [Eckhart Tolle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle.md) · [A New Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/another-aspect-of-the.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md) > The industrial age had only just begun; the planet had reached its Best Before date. [Jasper Fforde](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde.md) · [The Eyre Affair](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/the-eyre-affair.md) · p. 318 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/the-eyre-affair/the-industrial-age.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md) > It is harder to kill off fish than mammals. But after 1,000 years of hunting the Atlantic cod, we know that it can be done. [Mark Kurlansky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky.md) · [Cod](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky/cod.md) · p. 233 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky/cod/it-is-harder.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md) > Whatever steps are taken, one of the great obstacles to restoring cod stocks off of Newfoundland is an almost pathological collective denial of what has happened. Newfoundlanders seem prepared to believe anything other than that they have killed off nature’s bounty. [Mark Kurlansky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky.md) · [Cod](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky/cod.md) · p. 204 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky/cod/whatever-steps-are.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [self-deception](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-deception-2.md) > Politics and nationalism often play far greater roles than conservation in the decision-making process. [Mark Kurlansky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky.md) · [Cod](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky/cod.md) · p. 210 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky/cod/politics-and-nationalism.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > If ever there was a fish made to endure, it is the Atlantic cod—the common fish. But it has among its predators man, an openmouthed species greedier than cod. [Mark Kurlansky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky.md) · [Cod](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky/cod.md) · p. 45 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky/cod/if-ever-there.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [greed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed.md) > As long as fisherman can catch a fish, they resist the idea that the species is in trouble. But with cod, they all recognize that there is a problem. [Mark Kurlansky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky.md) · [Cod](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky/cod.md) · p. 226 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-kurlansky/cod/as-long-as-fisherman.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > People had gone too far in destroying the earth, and now the earth was diminishing the number of people. (fourteen: BY THE LIGHT OF THE UNYELLOW MOON) [Marge Piercy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy.md) · [He, She and It](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy/he-she-and-it.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy/he-she-and-it/people-had-gone.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > No one before the twenty-first century had ever loved flowers and fruiting trees and little birds and the simple beauty of green leaves as did those who lived after the Famine, for whom they were precious and rare and always endangered. (four: THROUGH THE BURNING LABYRINTH) [Marge Piercy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy.md) · [He, She and It](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy/he-she-and-it.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy/he-she-and-it/no-one-before.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > our incestuous fixation on combat with our own kind has left us ill prepared to face many of the larger perils of the situation in which we find ourselves: the possibility of drastic climatic changes, the depletion of natural resources, the relentless predations of the microbial world. The wealth that flows ceaselessly to the project of war is wealth lost, for the most part, to the battle against these threats. In the United States, military spending no longer requires a credible enemy to justify it, while funding for sanitation, nutrition, medical care, and environmental reclamation declines even as the need mounts. In the third world and much of the postcommunist world, the preparedness for war far surpasses the readiness to combat disease-witness Zaire's fumbling efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak of 1995, or the swiftly declining life expectancy of the former Soviets. [Barbara Ehrenreich](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-ehrenreich.md) · [Blood Rites](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-ehrenreich/blood-rites.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-ehrenreich/blood-rites/our-incestuous-fixation.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > They had jerrybuilt the beaches from San Diego to the Golden Gate, bulldozed super-highways through mountains, cut down a thousand year of redwood growth, and built an urban wilderness in the desert. They couldn't touch the ocean. They poured their sewage into it, but it couldn't be tainted. [Ross Macdonald](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ross-macdonald.md) · [The Drowning Pool](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ross-macdonald/the-drowning-pool.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ross-macdonald/the-drowning-pool/they-had-jerrybuilt.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [the sea](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea.md) > The sole religious orthodoxy permitted in our public schools is the separation of paper from plastic. Not so many miles from this beach, great-grandchildren of westering pioneers chain themselves to redwoods, martyrs of the new animism. [Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md) · [Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown/the-sole-religious.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md) > Being a planetary citizen does not need space travel. It means being conscious that we are part of the universe and of the earth. The most fundamental law is to recognise that we share the planet with other beings, and that we have a duty to care for our common home. [Vandana Shiva](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva.md) · [Oneness vs. the 1%](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva/oneness-vs-the-1.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva/oneness-vs-the-1/being-a-planetary.md) Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The business of grabbing and money-making, through a violent extractive economy that the 1% have built, is burdening the earth and humanity with unbearable and non-sustainable costs, and has brought us to the brink of extinction. We do not have to escape from the earth; we have to escape from the illusions that enslave our minds and make extinction look inevitable. [Vandana Shiva](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva.md) · [Oneness vs. the 1%](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva/oneness-vs-the-1.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva/oneness-vs-the-1/the-business-of-grabbing.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [greed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed.md) > Principles of Earth Democracy, #10: Earth Democracy connects people in circles of care, cooperation, and compassion instead of dividing them through competition and conflict, fear and hatred. In the face of a world of greed, inequality, and overconsumption, Earth Democracy globalizes compassion, justice, and sustainability. (p. 11) [Vandana Shiva](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva.md) · [Earth Democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva/earth-democracy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva/earth-democracy/principles-of-earth.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [empathy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy.md) > Birds' songs express joy, beauty, and purity, and evoke in us vitality and love. So many beings in the universe love us unconditionally. The trees, the water, and the air don't ask anything of us; they just love us. Even though we need this kind of love, we continue to destroy them. By destroying the animals, the air, and the trees, we are destroying ourselves. We must learn to practice unconditional love for all beings so that the animals, the air, the trees, and the minerals can continue to be themselves. > > Our ecology should be a deep ecology—not only deep, but universal. There is pollution in our consciousness. Television, films, and newspapers are forms of pollution for us and our children. They sow seeds of violence and anxiety in us and pollute our consciousness, just as we destroy our environment by farming with chemicals, clear-cutting the trees, and polluting the water. We need to protect the ecology of the Earth and the ecology of the mind, or this kind of violence and recklessness will spill over into even more areas of life. [Thich Nhat Hanh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh.md) · [The Sun My Heart](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh/the-sun-my-heart.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh/the-sun-my-heart/birds-songs-express.md) Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Our Earth, our green beautiful Earth is in danger, and all of us know it. Yet we act as if our daily lives have nothing to do with the situation of the world. If the Earth were your body, you would be able to feel many areas where she is suffering. Many people are aware of the world's suffering, and their hearts are filled with compassion. They know what needs to be done, and they engage in political, social, and environmental work to try to change things. But after a period of intense involvement, they become discouraged, because they lack the strength needed to sustain a life of action. Real strength is not in power, money, or weapons, but in deep, inner peace. If we change our daily lives—the way we think, speak, and act—we change the world. The best way to take care of the environment is to take care of the environmentalist. [Thich Nhat Hanh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh.md) · [The Sun My Heart](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh/the-sun-my-heart.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh/the-sun-my-heart/our-earth-our.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [empathy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy.md) > We share this planet, our home, with millions of species. Justice and sustainability both demand that we do not use more resources than we need. Restraint in resource use and living within nature's limits are preconditions for social justice. The commons are where justice and sustainability converge, where ecology and equity meet. The survival of pastures and forests as community property, or of a common good like a stable ecosystem, is only possible with social organizations with checks and controls on the use of resources built into their principles. The breakdown of a community, with the associated erosion of concepts of joint ownership and responsibility, can trigger the degradation of common resources. (p.50) [Vandana Shiva](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva.md) · [Earth Democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva/earth-democracy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vandana-shiva/earth-democracy/we-share-this.md) Topics: [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > We have to remember that our body is not limited to what lies within the boundary of our skin. Our body is much more immense. We know that if our heart stops beating, the flow of our life will stop, but we do not take the time to notice the many things outside of our bodies that are equally essential for our survival. If the ozone layer around our Earth were to disappear for even an instant, we would die. If the sun were to stop shining, the flow of our life would stop. The sun is our second heart, our heart outside of our body. It gives all life on Earth the warmth necessary for existence. Plants live thanks to the sun. Their leaves absorb the sun's energy, along with carbon dioxide from the air, to produce food for the tree, the flower, the plankton. And thanks to plants, we and other animals can live. All of us—people, animals, plants, and minerals—"consume" the sun, directly and indirectly. We cannot begin to describe all the effects of the sun, that great heart outside of our body. > > When we look at green vegetables, we should know that it is the sun that is green and not just the vegetables. The green color in the leaves of the vegetables is due to the presence of the sun. Without the sun, no living being could survive. Without sun, water, air, and soil, there would be no vegetables. The vegetables are the coming-together of many conditions near and far. [Thich Nhat Hanh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh.md) · [The Sun My Heart](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh/the-sun-my-heart.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh/the-sun-my-heart/we-have-to-remember.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [the body](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-body.md) > If you are a mountain climber or someone who enjoys the countryside or the forest, you know that forests are our lungs outside of our bodies. Yet we have been acting in a way that has allowed millions of square miles of land to be deforested, and we have also destroyed the air, the rivers, and parts of the ozone layer. We are imprisoned in our small selves, thinking only of some comfortable conditions for this small self, while we destroy our large self. If we want to change the situation, we must begin by being our true selves. To be our true selves means we have to be the forest, the river, and the ozone layer. If we visualize ourselves as the forest, we will experience the hopes and fears of the trees. If we don't do this, the forests will die, and we will lose our chance for peace. When we understand that we inter-are with the trees, we will know that it is up to us to make an effort to keep the trees alive. [Thich Nhat Hanh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh.md) · [The Sun My Heart](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh/the-sun-my-heart.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh/the-sun-my-heart/if-you-are.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md) > What many of us fail to realize is that the last four hundred years are a highly special period in the history of the world. The pace at which changes during these years have taken place is unexampled in earlier history, as is the very nature of these changes. This is partly the results of increased communication, but also of an increased mastery over nature, which on a limited planet like the earth, may prove in the long run to be an increased slavery to nature. For the more we get out of the world the less we leave, and in the long run we shall have to pay our debts at a time that may be very inconvenient for our own survival. [Norbert Wiener](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norbert-wiener.md) · [The Human Use Of Human Beings](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norbert-wiener/the-human-use-of-human-beings.md) · p. 46 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norbert-wiener/the-human-use-of-human-beings/what-many-of-us-fail.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [technological progress](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technological-progress.md) > An ecosystem is more like a conference than a community -- indefinite, pluralistic, tolerant, and in constant flux. [Kevin Kelly](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly.md) · [Out Of Control](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly/out-of-control.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly/out-of-control/an-ecosystem-is-more.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [tolerance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tolerance.md) > The work of managing a natural environment is inescapably a work of local knowledge. [Kevin Kelly](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly.md) · [Out Of Control](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly/out-of-control.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly/out-of-control/the-work-of-managing.md) Topics: [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > "We don’t need any more heroes; we just need someone to take out the recycling." [Banksy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy.md) · [Wall and Piece](https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy/wall-and-piece.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy/wall-and-piece/we-dont-need.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [heroism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/heroism.md) > Many of the environmentalists who moved into the environmental movement after Silent Spring ... detested pollution and craved purity. Absolute purity. They wanted to enforce zero tolerance on all environmental pollutants, not just on carcinogens. With friends like these the environment needs no enemies. [Garrett Hardin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin.md) · [Filters against Folly](https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin/filters-against-folly.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin/filters-against-folly/many-of-the.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [fanaticism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism.md) > Continuity is at the heart of conservatism: ecology serves that heart. [Garrett Hardin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin.md) · [Filters against Folly](https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin/filters-against-folly.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin/filters-against-folly/continuity-is-at-the.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [tradition](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition.md) > "The environment has to be balanced against the economy." This quote portrays environmental concerns as a luxury, views measures to solve environmental problems as incurring a net cost, and considers leaving environmental problems unsolved to be a money-saving device. This one-liner puts the truth exactly backwards. Environmental messes cost us huge sums of money both in the short run and in the long run; cleaning up or preventing those messes saves us huge sums in the long run, and often in the short run as well. In caring for the health of our surroundings, just as of our bodies, it is cheaper and preferable to avoid getting sick than to try to cure illnesses after they have developed. [Jared Diamond](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond.md) · [Collapse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse.md) · p. 503 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse/the-environment-has.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [economy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/economy.md) > Because we are the cause of our environmental problems, we are the ones in control of them, and we can choose or not choose to stop causing them and start solving them. The future is up for grabs, lying in our own hands. We don’t need new technologies to solve our problems; while new technologies can make some contribution, for the most part we "just" need the political will to apply solutions already available. [Jared Diamond](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond.md) · [Collapse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse/because-we-are.md) Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > In fact, one of the main lesson to be learned from the collapses of the Maya, Anasazi, Easter Islanders, and those other past societies (as well as from the recent collapse of the Soviet Union) is that a society's steep decline may begin only a decade or two after the society reaches its peak numbers, wealth, and power. [...] The reason is simple: maximum population, wealth, resource consumption, and waste production mean maximum environmental impact, approaching the limit where impact outstrips resources. On reflection, it's no surprise that declines of societies tend to follow swiftly on their peaks. [Jared Diamond](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond.md) · [Collapse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse.md) · p. 509 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse/in-fact-one.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [civilization](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization.md) > Thus, because we are rapidly advancing along this non-sustainable course, the world's environmental problems will get resolved, in one way or another, within the lifetimes of the children and young adults alive today 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 societies. While all of those grim phenomena have been endemic to humanity throughout our history, their frequency increases with environmental degradation, population pressure, and the resulting poverty and political instability. [Jared Diamond](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond.md) · [Collapse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse.md) · p. 498 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse/thus-because-we-are.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > If the Easter Islanders couldn't solve their milder local problems in the past, how can the modern world hope to solve its big global problems? People who get depressed at such thoughts often then ask me, “Jared, are you optimistic or pessimistic about the world’s future?” I answer, “I am a cautious optimist.” By that, I mean that, on the one hand, I acknowledge the seriousness of the problems facing us. If we don’t make a determined effort to solve them, and if we don’t succeed at that effort, the world as a whole within the next few decades will face a declining standard of living, or perhaps something worse. That’s the reason why I decided to devote most of my career efforts at this stage of my life to convincing people that our problems have to be taken seriously and won’t go away otherwise. On the other hand, we shall be able to solve our problems – if we choose to do so. [Jared Diamond](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond.md) · [Collapse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse.md) · p. 521 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse/if-the-easter.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [optimism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/optimism.md) > People often ask, "What is the single most important environmental/population problem facing the world today?" A flip answer would be, "The single most important problem is our misguided focus on identifying the single most important problem!" [Jared Diamond](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond.md) · [Collapse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse.md) · p. 498 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse/people-often-ask.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > You know, where I come from, the people who did this to a forest would be called pioneers—a very special breed of heroes, since instead of killing other human beings they concentrate on slaughtering nature itself. [Stephen Donaldson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson.md) · [The Illearth War](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson/the-illearth-war.md) · p. 460 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson/the-illearth-war/you-know-where.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md) > The people of Earth did not understand that humans were part of a worldwide organism, that something as tiny as a cluster of bacteria could mean the difference between life and death for every living thing, the difference between a functioning, flourishing planet and a desolation. [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Margarets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets.md) · p. 272 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/the-people-of-earth.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > “We have a membership provided the ISTO doesn’t declare all Earthians a barbarian people.” > > “I don’t know what that means,” I persisted, even though this wasn’t strictly part of the subject. > > Father gritted his teeth. “ISTO recognizes four types of creatures: civilized, semicivilized, barbarians, and animals. Civilized people know about, care about, and protect their environments. Semicivilized people know and care, but can’t do anything…” > > “Why not?” > > Mother said, “Because something prevents their acting in their own self-interest. Public apathy. Commercial interference. Religious opposition. Governmental corruption. The Gentherans say the humans have a lot of that.” > > Father frowned at her and went on. “Barbarians know but don’t care about their worlds, and animals don’t even know.” [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Margarets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets.md) · p. 29 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/we-have-a-membership.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [civilization](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization.md) > “The Gentherans said too many Earthians were in fact barbarians who didn’t care what happened to Earth because they believed they’d be off in some lovely afterlife by that time.” > > “Would they be?” I asked, wonderstruck this idea. > > “I sincerely doubt it,” Mother snapped. [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Margarets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets.md) · p. 30 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/the-gentherans-said.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > “The human problem?” I asked, somewhat offended. > > She put her arm around me. “Forgive me, Gretamara, but your race as a whole has the unfailing habit of fouling its nest, killing its original planet, and doing its best to kill any others to which it is moved. Because we love and admire the human race for its many good qualities, we call this not ‘the human condition,’ meaning an irrevocable state, but ‘the human problem,’ one we wish to solve. The effort has gone on for some millennia, without result, and some of those involved in the effort are beginning to believe it is a waste of time and treasure.” [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Margarets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets.md) · p. 276 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/the-human-problem.md) Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Janet snarled, “Nell, who made you the arbiter of what’s Right and wrong or wrong?” > > Nell thumped the table. “I’m not making a moral judgment, I’m making a pragmatic one! Before the Happening, the world was full of people, and we were using up the Earth’s resources at a fantastic rate. Somehow we felt we’d find some other world before we used up this one, and going to space was a spectator sport. That game’s over. We’re not going anywhere! Therefore, all the attitudes that led to use-up-the-world-and-leave-it-behind are wrong for us, and whatever attitudes keep the Earth fit for what people and animals are left is right for us, and I defy you to come up with any better definition.” [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Visitor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-visitor.md) · p. 226 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-visitor/janet-snarled-nell.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > We have been thwarted at every turn by god. Not the real God. A false one which has been set up by man to expedite his destruction of the earth. He is the gobble-god who bids fair to swallow everything in the name of a totally selfish humanity. His ten commandments are me first (let me live as I please), humans first (let all other living things die for my benefit), sperm first (no birth control), birth first (no abortions), males first (no women’s rights), my culture/tribe/language/religion first (separatism/terrorism), my race first (no human rights), my politics first (lousy liberals/rotten reactionaries), my country first (wave the flag, the flag, the flag), and, above all, profit first. [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/beauty.md) · p. 320 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/beauty/we-have-been.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md) > I wept a time for Mama and for Israfel, but weeping does no good, does it? Sitting down and weeping is what women have done for centuries, and it has done no good at all. Nor praying. God has given us the earth. He is not waiting in the next room, ready to fix it for us if we ruin it. If we do not care for it, no one will. On other worlds, other races of men perhaps do better than we have done. He cares for us, but he does not control what we do. [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/beauty.md) · p. 458 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/beauty/i-wept-a-time.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The stories of Old-earth are shared among the people of Old-earth. Even I, Saluez, can identify elephant and whale, ostrich and eagle, serpent and wolf, though they exist no longer. I know that they were and now are not, because of mankind. [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Shadow’s End](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/shadows-end.md) · p. 411 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/shadows-end/the-stories-of-old-earth.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md) > She sighed. “Things the Creator Himself made have perished, Beauty, because of what someone else does. The Holy One makes a tree that lives for four thousand years, and someone chops it down to make paper to package chewing gum. The Creator makes whales who sing in the deep, and men kill them to put their oil in lipsticks.” [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/beauty.md) · p. 426 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/beauty/she-sighed-things.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > “It seems to me,” said Spiggy softly, “that when a race of man becomes so anthropocentric it regards other living beings as lesser consumables, it could get to be a habit. It might become easy to include other living creatures with the Gharm. Animals. Children. Women. Entire planet. Perhaps they, too, become consumables, to be used up and thrown away.” [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Raising The Stones](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones.md) · p. 284 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones/it-seems-to-me-said.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md), [cruelty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty.md) > “Also, the people who’ve left tended to be those who thought man was more important than other parts of creation, and themselves more important than other men,” Africa mused. “Me-and-my-image devotees. Human fertility worshippers. The kind of people who will happily kill other species to make room for more humans, advocates of the old ‘fill up the world and ruin it’ philosophy.” [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Raising The Stones](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones.md) · p. 466 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones/also-the-people.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md) > History upon Terra tells us what horrors follow upon religious mandates of unlimited reproduction. [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Grass](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/grass.md) · p. 250 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/grass/history-upon-terra.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Why are we wondering why the world wishes itself dead when we are doing nothing to heal it? [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Dervish Daughter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/dervish-daughter.md) · p. 203 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/dervish-daughter/why-are-we-wondering.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > at exactly the time when it has become clear that global warming is in every sense a collective predicament, humanity finds itself in the thrall of a dominant culture in which the idea of the collective has been exiled from politics, economics, and literature alike. [Amitav Ghosh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh.md) · [The Great Derangement: From bestselling author and winner of the 2018 Jnanpith Award](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh/the-great-derangement-from-bestselling-author-and-winner-of-the-2018-jnanpith-award.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh/the-great-derangement-from-bestselling-author-and-winner-of-the-2018-jnanpith-award/at-exactly-the.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [culture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture.md), [community](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/community.md) > to imagine other forms of human existence is exactly the challenge that is posed by the climate crisis: for if there is one thing that global warming has made perfectly clear it is that to think about the world only as it is amounts to a formula for collective suicide. We need, rather, to envision what it might be. [Amitav Ghosh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh.md) · [The Great Derangement: From bestselling author and winner of the 2018 Jnanpith Award](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh/the-great-derangement-from-bestselling-author-and-winner-of-the-2018-jnanpith-award.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh/the-great-derangement-from-bestselling-author-and-winner-of-the-2018-jnanpith-award/to-imagine-other.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [imagination](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination.md) > It should be remembered that men always prize that most which is least enjoyed. Thus, in a new country, the woods and other objects, which in an old country would be maintained at great cost, are got rid of, simply with a view of “improving” as it is called. [James Fenimore Cooper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-fenimore-cooper.md) · [The Last of the Mohicans](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-fenimore-cooper/the-last-of-the-mohicans.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-fenimore-cooper/the-last-of-the-mohicans/it-should-be-remembered.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > People have changed the climate of the world. Now they’re waiting for the old days to come back’ [Octavia E. Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler.md) · [Parable of the Sower](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower.md) · p. 57 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/people-have-changed.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [nostalgia](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia.md) > Faced with a choice between the survival of the planet and a new set of matching tableware, most people would choose the tableware. [George Monbiot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-monbiot.md) · [Heat](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-monbiot/heat.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-monbiot/heat/faced-with-a-choice.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [consumerism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism.md) > "Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves." [Michael Crichton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton.md) · [Jurassic Park](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/jurassic-park.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/jurassic-park/lets-be-clear.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Scientific and technological “solutions” which poison the environment or degrade the social structure and man himself are of no benefit, no matter how brilliantly conceived or how great their superficial attraction. [E. F. Schumacher](https://www.leafyquotes.com/e-f-schumacher.md) · [Small Is Beautiful](https://www.leafyquotes.com/e-f-schumacher/small-is-beautiful.md) · p. 31 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/e-f-schumacher/small-is-beautiful/scientific-and-technological.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md) > Only when we eat up this planet will God give us another. [Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Invisible Monsters](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters/only-when-we-eat.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Anyone who loves nature, as I do, cries out at the havoc being spread by humans, all over the globe. The pressures of city life can be appalling, as are the moral ambiguities that plague us, both at home and via yammering media. The temptation to seek uncomplicated certainty sends some rushing off to ashrams and crystal therapy, while many dive into the shelter of fundamentalism, and other folk yearn for better, “simpler” times. Certain popular writers urgently prescribe returning to ancient, nobler ways. > > Ancient, nobler ways. It is a lovely image . . . and pretty much a lie. John Perlin, in his book A Forest Journey, tells how each prior culture, from tribal to pastoral to urban, wreaked calamities upon its own people and environment. I have been to Easter Island and seen the desert its native peoples wrought there. The greater harm we do today is due to our vast power and numbers, not something intrinsically vile about modern humankind. > > Technology produces more food and comfort and lets fewer babies die. “Returning to older ways” would restore some balance all right, but entail a holocaust of untold proportion, followed by resumption of a kind of grinding misery never experienced by those who now wistfully toss off medieval fantasies and neolithic romances. A way of life that was nasty, brutish, and nearly always catastrophic for women. > > That is not to say the pastoral image doesn’t offer hope. By extolling nature and a lifestyle closer to the Earth, some writers may be helping to create the very sort of wisdom they imagine to have existed in the past. Someday, truly idyllic pastoral cultures may be deliberately designed with the goal of providing placid and just happiness for all, while retaining enough technology to keep existence decent. > > But to get there the path lies forward, not by diving into a dark, dank, miserable past. There is but one path to the gracious, ecologically sound, serene pastoralism sought by so many. That route passes, ironically, through successful consummation of this, our first and last chance, our scientific age. [David Brin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin.md) · [Glory Season](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/glory-season.md) · p. 563 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/glory-season/anyone-who-loves.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md), [nostalgia](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia.md) > History and geology show what an eyeblink it’s been since our current, comfortable culture came about. And yet that culture is using up absolutely everything at a ferocious rate. [David Brin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin.md) · [Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/earth.md) · p. 656 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/earth/history-and-geology.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > They saw the end coming, he thought, looking down the file of awful figures. But they were dead wrong about the reasons why. They assumed only gods had the power to wreak such havoc on their world, but people caused the devastation here. > > Alex felt compassion for the ancient Pasquans—but a superior sort nevertheless. In blaming gods, they had conveniently diverted censure from the real culprit. The designer of weapons. The feller of trees. The destroyer. Man himself. [David Brin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin.md) · [Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/earth.md) · p. 366 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/earth/they-saw-the.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > We can’t save the world without food. Only people with full stomachs become environmentalists. [David Brin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin.md) · [Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/earth.md) · p. 72 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/earth/we-cant-save.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [poverty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty.md) > If we're ever going to get the world back on a natural footing, back in tune with natural rhythyms, if we're going to nurture the Earth and protect it and have fun with it and learn from it — which is what mothers do with their children — then we've got to put technology (an aggressive masculine system) in its proper place, which is that of a tool to be used sparingly, joyfully, gently and only in the fullest cooperation with nature. Nature must govern technology, not the other way around. [Tom Robbins](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins.md) · [Even Cowgirls Get the Blues](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/even-cowgirls-get-the-blues.md) · p. 211 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/even-cowgirls-get-the-blues/if-were-ever.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md) > "...We believe we can continue to live and thrive only if we care for one another. This is the age of the Reaper, when we inherit five thousand years of postponed results, the fruits of our callousness toward the earth and toward other human beings. But at last we have come to understand that we are part of the earth, part of the air, the fire, and the water, as we are part of one another.” (p17) [Starhawk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/starhawk.md) · [The Fifth Sacred Thing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/starhawk/the-fifth-sacred-thing.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/starhawk/the-fifth-sacred-thing/we-believe-we-can.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Imagine the terrestrial timespan as an outstretched arm: a single swipe of an emery=board, across the nail of the third finger, erases human history. We haven't been around for very long. And we've turned the earth's hair white. She seemed to have eternal youth but now she's ageing awful fast, like an addict, like a waxless candle. Jesus, have you seen her recently? We used to live and die without any sense of the planet getting older, of mother earth getting older, living and dying. We used to live outside history. But now we're all coterminous. We're inside history now all right, on its leading edge, with the wind ripping past our ears. Hard to love, when you're bracing yourself for impact. And maybe love can't bear it either, and flees all planets when they reach this condition, when they get to the end of their twentieth centuries. [Martin Amis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis.md) · [London Fields](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/london-fields.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/london-fields/imagine-the-terrestrial.md) Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The purpose of keeping any collection of wild animals in confinement should be threefold; first, to conduct as complete as possible a biological study of every species, especially those aspects which are too difficult or too costly to study in the wild and which may help in the preservation of that species in its natural habitat; second, to aid severely endangered species by setting up, under ideal conditions, protected breeding groups and, eventually, a reintroduction programme, so helping to ensure their future survival; thirdly, by the display and explanation of this work to the public, to persuade people of the vital necessity and urgency for the overall conservation of nature. [Gerald Durrell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell.md) · [The Stationary Ark](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell/the-stationary-ark.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell/the-stationary-ark/the-purpose-of-keeping.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md) > There would be a dreadful outcry if anyone suggested obliterating, say, the Tower of London, and quite rightly so; yet a unique and wonderful species of animal which has taken hundreds of thousands of years to develop to the stage we see today, can be snuffed out like a candle without more than a handful of people raising a finger or a voice in protest. So, until we consider animal life to be worthy of the consideration and reverence we bestow upon old books and pictures and historic monuments, there will always be the animal refugee living a precarious life on the edge of extermination, dependent for existence on the charity of a few human beings. [Gerald Durrell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell.md) · [Encounters with Animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell/encounters-with-animals.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell/encounters-with-animals/there-would-be-a-dreadful.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md) > Firstly what does conservation mean? It is not merely the saving from extinction of such species as the Notornis, the Leadbetters Possum or the Leathery Turtle; this is important work but it is only part of the problem. You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is not only vital for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself — a point that seems to escape many people. [Gerald Durrell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell.md) · [Two in the Bush](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell/two-in-the-bush.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell/two-in-the-bush/firstly-what-does.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > We have inherited an incredibly beautiful and complex garden, but the trouble is that we have been appallingly bad gardeners. We have not bothered to acquaint ourselves with the simplest principles of gardening. By neglecting our garden, we are storing up for ourselves, in the not very distant future, a world catastrophe as bad as any atomic war, and we are doing it with all the bland complacency of an idiot child chopping up a Rembrandt with a pair of scissors. We go on, year after year, all over the world, creating dust bowls and erosion, cutting down forests and overgrazing our grasslands, polluting one of our most vital commodities — water — with industrial filth and all the time we are breeding with the ferocity of the Brown Rat, and wondering why there is not enough food to go round. We now stand so aloof from nature that we think we are God. This has always been a dangerous supposition. [Gerald Durrell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell.md) · [Two in the Bush](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell/two-in-the-bush.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gerald-durrell/two-in-the-bush/we-have-inherited.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Nothing mankind had done in its short and bloody history had made the slightest bit of difference to this patient geographical realignment. > > Meanwhile the Earth, left to its own devices, had deployed a variety of healing mechanisms, physical, chemical, biological, and geological, to recover from the devastating interventions of its human inhabitants. Air pollutants had been broken up by sunlight and dispersed. Bog ore had absorbed much metallic waste. Vegetation had recolonized abandoned landscapes, roots breaking up concrete and asphalt, overgrowing ditches and canals. Erosion by wind and water had caused the final collapse of the last structures, washing it all into sand. > > Meanwhile the relentless processes of variation and selection had worked to fill an empty world. [Stephen Baxter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter.md) · [Evolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/evolution.md) · p. 579 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/evolution/nothing-mankind-had.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The fault is all ours. We have become overwhelming. About one in twenty of all the people who have ever existed is alive today, compared to just one in a thousand of other species. As a result we are depleting the earth. > > But even now the question is still asked: Does it really matter? So we lose a few cute mammals, and a lot of bugs nobody ever heard of. So what? We’re still here. > > Yes, we are. But the ecosystem is like a vast life-support machine. It is built on the interaction of species on all scales of life, from the humblest fungi filaments that sustain the roots of plants to the tremendous global cycles of water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. Darwin’s entangled bank, indeed. How does the machine stay stable? We don’t know. Which are its most important components? We don’t know. How much of it can we take out safely? We don’t know that either. Even if we could identify and save the species that are critical for our survival, we wouldn’t know which species they depend on in turn. But if we keep on our present course, we will soon find out the limits of robustness. > > I may be biased, but I believe it will matter a great deal if we were to die by our own foolishness. Because we bring to the world something that no other creature in all its long history has had, and that is conscious purpose. We can think our way out of this. > > So my question is—consciously, purposefully, what are we going to do? [Stephen Baxter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter.md) · [Evolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/evolution.md) · p. 509 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/evolution/the-fault-is-all.md) Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > As the natural systems of the planet broke down, humans would discover conclusively that they were still, after all, just animals in an ecosystem; and as it died back, so did they. [Stephen Baxter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter.md) · [Evolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/evolution.md) · p. 525 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/evolution/as-the-natural.md) Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Understanding ecological interdependence means understanding relationships. It requires the shifts of perception that are characteristic of systems thinking—from the parts to the whole, from objects to relationships, from contents to patterns. ...Nourishing the community means nourishing those relationships. [Fritjof Capra](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra.md) · [The Web of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-web-of-life.md) · p. 298 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-web-of-life/understanding-ecological-interdependence.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [community](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/community.md) > These, then, are some of the basic principles of ecology—interdependence, recycling, partnership, flexibiility, diversity, and, as a consequence of all those, sustainability ...the survival of humanity will depend on our ecological literacy, on our ability to understand these principles of ecology and live accordingly. [Fritjof Capra](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra.md) · [The Web of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-web-of-life.md) · p. 304 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-web-of-life/these-then-are.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > A major clash between economics and ecology derives from the fact that nature is cyclical, whereas our industrial systems are linear. Our businesses take resources, transform them into products plus waste, and sell the products to consumers, who discard more waste... [Fritjof Capra](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra.md) · [The Web of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-web-of-life.md) · p. 299 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-web-of-life/a-major-clash.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [economy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/economy.md) > Economics emphasizes competition, expansion, and domination; ecology emphasizes cooperation, conservation, and partnership. [Fritjof Capra](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra.md) · [The Web of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-web-of-life.md) · p. 301 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-web-of-life/economics-emphasizes-competition.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [economy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/economy.md) > It is ironic to think that man might determine his own future by something so seemingly trivial as the choice of an insect spray. All this has been risked-for what? Future historians may well be amazed by our distorted sense of proportion. How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind? Yet this is precisely what we have done. We have done it, moreover, for reasons that collapse the moment we examine them. We are told that the enormous and expanding use of pesticides is necessary to maintain farm production. Yet is our real problem not one of overproduction? [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/it-is-ironic.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md) > 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. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) · p. 6 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/the-most-alarming.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > For each of us, as for the robin in Michigan or the Salmon in the Miramichi, this is a problem of ecology, of interrelationships, of interdependence. We poison the caddis flies in a stream and the salmon runs dwindle and die. We poison the gnats in a lake and the poison travels from link to link of the food chain and soon the birds of the lake margins become its victims. We spray our elms and the following springs are silent of robin song, not because we sprayed the robins directly but because the poison traveled, step by step, through the now familiar elm leaf-earthworm-robin cycle. These are matters of record, observable, part of the visible world around us. They reflect the web of life — or death — that scientists know as ecology. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) · p. 189 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/for-each-of.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Through all these new, imaginative, and creative approaches to the problem of sharing our earth with other creatures there runs a constant theme, the awareness that we are dealing with life-with living populations and all their pressures and counter-pressures, their surges and recessions. Only by taking account of such life forces and by cautiously seeking to guide them into channels favorable to ourselves can we hope to achieve a reasonable accommodation between the insect hordes and ourselves. The current vogue for poisons has failed utterly to take into account these most fundamental considerations. As crude a weapon as the cave man's club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life-a fabric on the one hand delicate and destructible, on the other miraculously tough and resilient, and capable of striking back in unexpected ways. These extraordinary capacities of life have been ignored by the practitioners of chemical control who have brought to their task no "high-minded orientation," no humility before the vast forces with which they tamper. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/through-all-these.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [humility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility.md) > The "control of nature" is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man. The concepts and practices of applied entomology for the most part date from that Stone Age of science. It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the earth. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/the-control-of-nature.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md) > The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings. To a large extent, the physical form and the habits of the earth's vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the environment. Considering the whole span of earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies its surroundings, has been relatively slight. Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species-man-acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/the-history-of-life.md) Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road-the one "less traveled by"-offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of our earth. The choice, after all, is ours to make. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) · p. 277 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/we-stand-now.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [choices](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices.md) > Future generations are unlikely to condone our lack of prudent concern for the integrity of the natural world that supports all life. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/future-generations-are.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [the future](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future.md) > Much of the necessary knowledge is now available but we do not use it. We train ecologists in our universities and even employ them in our governmental agencies but we seldom take their advice. We allow the chemical death rain to fall as though there were no alternative, whereas in fact there are many, and our ingenuity could soon discover many more if given opportunity. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/much-of-the.md) Topics: [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The figure is staggering and its implications are not easily grasped-500 new chemicals to which the bodies of men and animals are required somehow to adapt each year, chemicals totally outside the limits of biologic experience. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/the-figure-is-staggering.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > It is an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged. When the public protests, confronted with some obvious evidence of damaging results of pesticide applications, it is fed little tranquilizing pills of half truth. We urgently need an end to these false assurances, to the sugar coating of unpalatable facts. It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks that the insect controllers calculate. The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so only when in full possession of the facts. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/it-is-an-era.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [capitalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capitalism.md) > Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of the birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird song. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/over-increasingly-large.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > If, having endured much, we have at last asserted our "right to know," and if, knowing, we have concluded that we are being asked to take senseless and frightening risks, then we should no longer accept the counsel of those who tell us that we must fill our world with poisonous chemicals; we should look about and see what other course is open to us. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/if-having-endured.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called "insecticides," but "biocides." [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/can-anyone-believe.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > It is not my contention that chemical insecticides must never be used. I do contend that we have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their potential for harm. We have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons, without their consent and often without their knowledge. If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed either by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could conceive of no such problem. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [Silent Spring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/it-is-not.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [law](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law.md) > Although man's record as a steward of the natural resources of the earth has been a discouraging one, there has long been a certain comfort in the belief that the sea, at least, was inviolate, beyond man's ability to change and to despoil. But this belief, unfortunately, has proved to be naive. In unlocking the secrets of the atom, modern man has found himself confronted with a frightening problem-what to do with the most dangerous materials that have ever existed in all the earth's history, the by-products of atomic fission. The stark problem that faces him is whether he can dispose of these lethal substances without rendering the earth uninhabitable. No account of the sea today is complete unless it takes note of this ominous problem. By its very vastness and its seeming remoteness, the sea has invited the attention of those who have the problem of disposal, and with very little discussion and almost no public notice, at least until the late 'fifties, the sea has been selected as a "natural" burying place for the contaminated rubbish and other "low-level wastes" of the Atomic Age. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [The Sea Around Us](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us/although-mans-record.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [the sea](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea.md) > It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose, should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [The Sea Around Us](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us/it-is-a-curious.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [the sea](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea.md) > The truth is that disposal has proceeded far more rapidly than our knowledge justifies. To dispose first and investigate later is an invitation to disaster, for once radioactive elements have been deposited at sea they are irretrievable. The mistakes that are made now are made for all time. [Rachel L Carson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson.md) · [The Sea Around Us](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us/the-truth-is-that.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > It’s hard to explain the cost and consequences of environmental pollution and destruction to a six year old. But we are paying a desperate price even now because adults did not heed the instructions of kindergarten: Clean up your own mess; put things back where you found them; don’t take what’s not yours. [Robert Fulghum](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-fulghum.md) · [All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-fulghum/all-i-really-need-to-know-i-learned-in-kindergarten.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-fulghum/all-i-really-need-to-know-i-learned-in-kindergarten/its-hard-to-explain.md) Topics: [children](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders. [Edward Abbey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey.md) · [The Journey Home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home.md) · p. 223 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home/the-idea-of-wilderness.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > My job is to save the fucking wilderness. I don't know anything else worth saving. [Edward Abbey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey.md) · [The Monkey Wrench Gang](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-monkey-wrench-gang.md) · p. 229 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-monkey-wrench-gang/my-job-is-to-save.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. [Edward Abbey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey.md) · [The Journey Home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home.md) · p. 183 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home/growth-for-the.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [economy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/economy.md) > The earth is not a mechanism but an organism, a being with its own life and its own reasons, where the support and sustenance of the human animal is incidental. If man in his newfound power and vanity persists in the attempt to remake the planet in his own image, he will succeed only in destroying himself — not the planet. The earth will survive our most ingenious folly. [Edward Abbey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey.md) · [The Journey Home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home.md) · p. 225 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home/the-earth-is-not.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md) > Knowing now what we have learned, unless the need were urgent, I could no more sink the blade of an ax into the tissues of a living tree than I could drive it into the flesh of a fellow human. [Edward Abbey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey.md) · [The Journey Home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home.md) · p. 208 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home/knowing-now-what.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > I understand and sympathize with the reasonable needs of a reasonable number of people on a finite continent. All life depends upon other life. But what is happening today, in North America, is not rational use but irrational massacre. Man the Pest, multiplied to the swarming stage, is attacking the remaining forests like a plague of locusts on a field of grain. [Edward Abbey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey.md) · [The Journey Home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home.md) · p. 208 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home/i-understand-and.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > In our attempt to make conservation easy, we have made it trivial. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 210 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/in-our-attempt.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes — something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view. > > Since then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn. Such a mountain looks as if someone had given God a new pruning shears, and forbidden Him all other exercise. … I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 130 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/we-reached-the.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md) > An ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on freedom of action in the struggle for existence. An ethic, philosophically, is a differentiation of social from anti-social conduct. These are two definitions of one thing. The thing has its origin in the tendency of interdependent individuals or groups to evolve modes of co-operation. The ecologist calls these symbioses. Politics and economics are advanced symbioses in which the original free-for-all competition has been replaced, in part, by co-operative mechanisms with an ethical content. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 202 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/an-ethic-ecologically.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > One basic weakness in a conservation system based wholly on economic motives is that most members of the land community have no economic value. Wildflowers and songbirds are examples. Of the 22,000 higher plants and animals native to Wisconsin, it is doubtful whether more than 5 per cent can be sold, fed, eaten, or otherwise put to economic use. Yet these creatures are members of the biotic community, and if (as I believe) its stability depends on its integrity, they are entitled to continuance. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 210 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/one-basic-weakness.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [economy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/economy.md) > Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 207 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/conservation-is-a-state.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 224 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/examine-each-question.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Individual thinkers since the days of Ezekiel and Isaiah have asserted that the despoliation of land is not only inexpedient but wrong. Society, however, has not yet affirmed their belief. I regard the present conservation movement as the embryo of such an affirmation. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 203 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/individual-thinkers-since.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 204 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/do-we-not.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [patriotism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/patriotism.md) > All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. … The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land. … A land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 203 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/all-ethics-so-far.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [community](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/community.md) > I have read many definitions of what is a conservationist, and written not a few myself, but I suspect that the best one is written not with a pen, but with an axe. It is a matter of what a man thinks about while chopping, or while deciding what to chop. A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke he is writing his signature on the face of his land. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 68 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/i-have-read.md) Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. There is no other way for land to survive the impact of mechanized man, nor for us to reap from it the aesthetic harvest it is capable, under science, of contributing to culture. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/conservation-is-getting.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/that-land-is-a-community.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > To build a road is so much simpler than to think of what the country really needs. A roadless marsh is seemingly as worthless to the alphabetical conservationist as an undrained one was to the empire-builders. Solitude, the one natural resource still undowered of alphabets, is so far recognized as valuable only by ornithologists and cranes. > > Thus always does history, whether of marsh or market place, end in paradox. The ultimate value in these marshes is wildness, and the crane is wildness incarnate. But all conservation of wildness is self-defeating, for to cherish we must see and fondle, and when enough have seen and fondled, there is no wilderness left to cherish. [Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 101 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/to-build-a-road.md) Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [paradox](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/paradox.md) > Everybody knew. Nobody admitted to knowing. If other people began to discuss it, you tuned them out, because what they were saying was both so obvious and so unthinkable. > > We are using up the Earth. It is almost gone. [Margaret Atwood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood.md) · [The Year of the Flood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/the-year-of-the-flood.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/the-year-of-the-flood/everybody-knew-nobody.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Most of all, the twentieth century will be remembered as the time when we first began to understand what our address was. The “big, beautiful, blue, wet ball” of recent years is one way to say it. But a more profound way will speak of the orders of magnitude of that bigness, the shades of that blueness, the arbitrary delicacy of beauty itself, the ways in which water has made life possible, and the fragile euphoria of the complex ecosystem that is Earth, an Earth on which, from space, there are no visible fences, or military zones, or national borders. [Diane Ackerman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman.md) · [A Natural History of the Senses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman/a-natural-history-of-the-senses.md) · p. 285 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/diane-ackerman/a-natural-history-of-the-senses/most-of-all.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The trouble with most forms of transport, he thought, is basically one of them not being worth all the bother. On Earth—when there had been an Earth, before it was demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass—the problem had been with cars. The disadvantages involved in pulling lots of black sticky slime from out of the ground where it had been safely hidden out of harm's way, turning it into tar to cover the land with, smoke to fill the air with and pouring the rest into the sea, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of being able to get more quickly from one place to another—particularly when the place you arrived at had probably become, as a result of this, very similar to the place you had left, i.e. covered with tar, full of smoke and short of fish. [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Restaurant at the End of the Universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe/the-trouble-with.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [travel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/travel.md) > On eroding, ecologically degraded, increasingly toxic landscapes, worked by failing or subsidy-dependent farmers and by the cheap labor of migrants, we have erected the tottering tower of "agribusiness," which prospers and "feeds the world" (incompletely and temporarily) by undermining its own foundations. [Wendell Berry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry.md) · [Citizenship Papers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/citizenship-papers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/citizenship-papers/on-eroding-ecologically.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > People who live at the lower ends of watersheds cannot be isolationists — or not for long. Pretty soon they will notice that water flows, and that will set them to thinking about the people upstream who either do or do not send down their silt and pollutants and garbage. Thinking about the people upstream out to cause further thinking about the people downstream. Such pondering on the facts of gravity and the fluidity of water shows us that the golden rule speaks to a condition of absolute interdependency and obligation. People who live on rivers — or, in fact, anywhere in a watershed — might rephrase the rule in this way: Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you. [Wendell Berry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry.md) · [Citizenship Papers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/citizenship-papers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/citizenship-papers/people-who-live.md) Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The ecological teaching of the Bible is simply inescapable: God made the world because He wanted it made. He thinks the world is good, and He loves it. It is His world; He has never relinquished title to it. And He has never revoked the conditions, bearing on His gift to us of the use of it, that oblige us to take excellent care of it. [Wendell Berry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry.md) · [What Are People For?](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/what-are-people-for.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/what-are-people-for/the-ecological-teaching.md) Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The more local and settled a culture, the better it stays put, the less the damage. It is the foreigner whose road of excess leads to a desert … a man with a machine and inadequate culture … is a pestilence. He shakes more than he can hold. [Wendell Berry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry.md) · [What Are People For?](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/what-are-people-for.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/what-are-people-for/the-more-local.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [culture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture.md) > We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. ... We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. . . We must recover the sense of the majesty of the creation and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it. [Wendell Berry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry.md) · [The Long-Legged House](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/the-long-legged-house.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/the-long-legged-house/we-have-lived.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [humility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility.md) > We haven't accepted — we can't really believe — that the most characteristic product of our age of scientific miracles is junk, but that is so. And we still think and behave as though we face an unspoiled continent, with thousands of acres of living space for every man. We still sing "America the Beautiful" as though we had not created in it, by strenuous effort, at great expense, and with dauntless self-praise, an unprecedented ugliness. [Wendell Berry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry.md) · [The Long-Legged House](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/the-long-legged-house.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/the-long-legged-house/we-havent-accepted.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md) > We all share one planet and are one humanity; there is no escaping this reality. [Wangari Maathai](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wangari-maathai.md) · [The Challenge for Africa](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wangari-maathai/the-challenge-for-africa.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wangari-maathai/the-challenge-for-africa/we-all-share.md) Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > "Let us go," we said, "into the Sea of Cortez, realizing that we become forever a part of it; that our rubber boots slogging through a flat of eel-grass, that the rocks we turn over in a tide pool, make us truly and permanently a factor in the ecology of the region. We shall take something away from it, but we shall leave something too." And if we seem a small factor in a huge pattern, nevertheless it is of relative importance. We take a tiny colony of soft corals from a rock in a little water world. And that isn't terribly important to the tide pool. Fifty miles away the Japanese shrimp boats are dredging with overlapping scoops, bringing up tons of shrimps, rapidly destroying the species so that it may never come back, and with the species destroying the ecological balance of the whole region. That isn't very important in the world. And thousands of miles away the great bombs are falling and the stars are not moved thereby. None of it is important or all of it is. [John Steinbeck](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck.md) · [The Log from the Sea of Cortez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-log-from-the-sea-of-cortez.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-log-from-the-sea-of-cortez/let-us-go-we-said.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > ''' In some areas of Poland, children are regularly taken underground into deep mines to gain some respite from the buildup of gases and pollution of all sorts in the air. One can almost imagine their teachers emerging tentatively from the mine, carrying canaries to warn the children when it’s no longer safe for them to stay above the ground. [Al Gore](https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore.md) · [The Assault on Reason](https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason/in-some-areas.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > One could not overshoot a planet’s carrying capacity without disaster following—that was what Earth’s history since the nineteenth century existed to prove. [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson.md) · [Blue Mars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/blue-mars.md) · p. 621 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/blue-mars/one-could-not.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > So life adapts to conditions. And at the same time, conditions are changed by life. That is one of the definitions of life: organism and environment change together in a reciprocal arrangement, as they are two manifestations of an ecology, two parts of a whole. [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson.md) · [Red Mars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars.md) · p. 205 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars/so-life-adapts.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > I do not think that, practically or morally, we can defend a policy of saving every distinctive local population of organisms. I can cite a good rationale for the preservation of species, for each species is a unique and separate natural object that, once lost, can never be reconstituted. But subspecies are distinctive local populations of species with broader geographic range. Subspecies are dynamic, interbreedable, and constantly changing: what then are we saving by declaring them all inviolate? [Stephen Jay Gould](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould.md) · [Eight Little Piggies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies.md) · p. 43 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/i-do-not.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > It is so hard for an evolutionary biologist to write about extinction caused by human stupidity. […] Let me then float an unconventional plea, the inverse of the usual argument. […] The extinction of Partula is unfair to Partula. That is the conventional argument, and I do not challenge its primacy. But we need a humanistic ecology as well, both for the practical reason that people will always touch people more than snails do or can, and for the moral reason that humans are legitimately the measure of all ethical questions—for these are our issues, not nature's. [Stephen Jay Gould](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould.md) · [Eight Little Piggies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies.md) · p. 39 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/it-is-so-hard.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Yet I also appreciate that 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 (but only appreciate in some abstract sense). So let them all continue—the films, the books, the television programs, the zoos, the little half acre of ecological preserve in any community, the primary school lessons, the museum demonstrations, even […] the 6:00 A.M. bird walks. Let them continue and expand because we must have visceral contact in order to love. We really must make room for nature in our hearts. [Stephen Jay Gould](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould.md) · [Eight Little Piggies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies.md) · p. 40 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/yet-i-also.md) Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Our book is Genesis. Their book is Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the original environmental hoax. [Ann Coulter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter.md) · [Godless](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/godless.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/godless/our-book-is-genesis.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > "But you can't just leave it at that!" said Anathema, pushing forward. "Think of all things you could do! Good things!" > > "Like what?" said Adam suspiciously. > > "Well ... you could bring all the whales back, to start with." > > He put his head on one side. "An' that'd stop people killing them, would it?" > > She hesitated. It would have been nice to say yes. > > "An' if people do start killing 'em, what would you have me do about 'em?" said Adam. "No. I reckon I'm getting the hang of this now. Once I start messing around like that, there'd be no stoppin' it. Seems to me, the only sensible thing is for people to know if they kill a whale, they've got a dead whale." [Neil Gaiman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman.md) · [Good Omens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/good-omens.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/good-omens/but-you-cant.md) Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Don't spoil the party, but here's the truth: We have squandered our planet's resources, including air and water, as though there were no tomorrow, so now there isn't going to be one. > > So there goes the Junior Prom, but that's not the half of it. [Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [A Man Without a Country](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country/dont-spoil-the.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [the future](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future.md) > The crucified planet Earth, > > should it find a voice > > and a sense of irony, > > might now well say > > of our abuse of it, > > "Forgive them, Father, > > They know not what they do."The irony would be > > that we know what > > we are doing.When the last living thing > > has died on account of us, > > how poetical it would be > > if Earth could say, > > in a voice floating up > > perhaps > > from the floor > > of the Grand Canyon, > > "It is done." > > People did not like it here. [Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [A Man Without a Country](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country/the-crucified-planet.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > "If flying-saucer creatures or angels or whatever were to come here in a hundred years, say, and find us gone like the dinosaurs, what might be a good message for humanity to leave for them, maybe carved in great big letters on a Grand Canyon wall? Here is this old poop's suggestion: WE PROBABLY COULD HAVE SAVED OURSELVES, BUT WERE TOO DAMNED LAZY TO TRY VERY HARD...AND TOO DAMNED CHEAP." [Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Fates Worse Than Death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/fates-worse-than-death.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/fates-worse-than-death/if-flying-saucer-creatures.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [laziness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/laziness.md) > Many scientists... are... subject to such foolishness... One flagrant example is... global warming... These scientists initially ignored the fact that these [high temperature] spikes, although rare, had the effect of adding disproportionately to the cumulative melting of the ice caps. ...[A]n event, although rare, that brings large consequences cannot be ignored. [Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [Fooled by Randomness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/many-scientists-are.md) Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [risk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/risk.md) > The White man never guessed at what the Red man saw and heard and felt. The White man brought death and emptiness to this place. The White man cut down wise old trees with much to tell; young saplings with many lifetimes of life ahead; and the White man never asked, Will you be glad to make a lodgehouse for me and my tribe? Hack and cut and chop and burn, that was the White man's way. Take from the forest, take from the land, take from the river, but put nothing back. The White man killed animals he didn't need, animals that did him no harm; yet if a bear woke hungry in the winter and took so much as a single young pig, the White man hunted him down and killed him in revenge. He never felt the balance of the land at all. [Orson Scott Card](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card.md) · [Red Prophet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/red-prophet/the-white-man.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [colonialism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/colonialism.md) > Gaia's main problems are not industrialization, ozone depletion, overpopulation, or resource depletion. Gaia's main problem is the lack of mutual understanding and mutual agreement in the noosphere about how to proceed with those problems. We cannot rein in industry if we cannot reach mutual understanding and mutual agreement based on a worldcentric moral perspective concerning the global commons. And we reach the worldcentric moral perspective through a difficult and laborious process of interior growth and transcendence. [Ken Wilber](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber.md) · [A Brief History of Everything](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/a-brief-history-of-everything.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/a-brief-history-of-everything/gaias-main-problems.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [consciousness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consciousness.md) > The more we emphasize teaching a merely Right-Hand map of systems theory or a Gaia Web of Life, instead of equally emphasizing the importance of interior development from egocentric to sociocentric to worldcentric, then the more we are contributing to Gaia's demise. [Ken Wilber](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber.md) · [Sex, Ecology, Spirituality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/sex-ecology-spirituality.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/sex-ecology-spirituality/the-more-we-emphasize.md) Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > "Saving the biosphere" depends first and foremost on human beings reaching mutual understanding and unforced agreement as to common ends. And that intersubjective accord occurs only in the noosphere. Anything short of that noospheric accord will continue to destroy the biosphere. [Ken Wilber](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber.md) · [Sex, Ecology, Spirituality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/sex-ecology-spirituality.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/sex-ecology-spirituality/saving-the-biosphere.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [consciousness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consciousness.md) > "When you think about it from a native plant perspective," Oyster says."Johnny Apple seed was a fucking biological terrorist." [Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Lullaby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/when-you-think.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The way you can go to Paris or Beijing, Oyster says, and everywhere there's a McDonald's hamburger, this is the ecological equivalent of franchised life-forms. Every place is the same place. Kudzu. Zebra mussels. Water hyacinths. Starlings. Burger Kings. The local natives, anything unique gets squeezed out.. He says, "We're landscaping the whole world one stupid mistake at a time." [Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Lullaby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/the-way-you.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [consumerism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism.md) > Centuries ago, sailors on long voyages used to leave a pair of pigs on every deserted island. Or they'd leave a pair of goats. Either way, on any future visit, the island would be a source of meat. These islands, they were pristine. These were home to breeds of birds with no natural predators. Breeds of birds that lived nowhere else on earth. The plants there, without enemies they evolved without thorns or poisons. Without predators and enemies, these islands, they were paradise. The sailors, the next time they visited these islands, the only things still there would be herds of goats or pigs. .... Does this remind you of anything? Maybe the ol' Adam and Eve story? .... You ever wonder when God's coming back with a lot of barbecue sauce? [Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Lullaby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/centuries-ago-sailors.md) Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The order and harmony of the Western world, its most famous achievement, and a laboratory in which structures of a complexity as yet unknown are being fashioned, demand the elimination of a prodigious mass of noxious by-products which now contaminate the globe. The first thing we see as we travel round the world is our own filth, thrown into the face of mankind. [Claude Lévi-Strauss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss.md) · [Tristes Tropiques](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques.md) · p. 38 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques/the-order-and.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [civilization](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization.md) > In any race between human numbers and natural resources, time is against us. [Aldous Huxley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley.md) · [Brave New World Revisited](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited.md) · p. 113 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited/in-any-race.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Who is going to educate the human race in the principles and practice of conservation? [Aldous Huxley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley.md) · [Brave New World Revisited](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited.md) · p. 112 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited/who-is-going.md) Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > I give you the desert chameleon, whose ability to blend itself into the background tells you all you need to know about the roots of ecology and the foundations of a personal identity. [Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md) · [Children Of Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune/i-give-you.md) Topics: [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Life improves the capacity of the environment to sustain life. Life makes needed nutrients more readily available. It binds more energy into the system through the tremendous chemical interplay form organism to organism. [Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md) · [Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/life-improves-the.md) Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > 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 might miss that collapse until it was too late. That's why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences. [Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md) · [Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/the-thing-the.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The highest function of ecology is understanding consequences. [Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md) · [Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/the-highest-function.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > You cannot go on forever stealing what you need without regard for those who come after. The physical qualities of a planet are written into its economic and political record. We have the record in front of us and our course is clear. [Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md) · [Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/you-cannot-go-on-forever.md) Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > Talking to cancer victims never makes me feel righteous, never vindicated. It makes me slightly ill and for some reason, guilty. If people like me would just keep our mouths shut, people like him would never suspect why they got cancer. They'd chalk it up to God or probability. They wouldn't die with hearts full of venom. > > It is a strange world that Industry has made. Kind of a seething toxic harbor, opening out on a blue unspoiled ocean. Most people are swimming in it, and I get to float around on the surface, on my Zodiac, announcing that they're in trouble. What I really want to do is make a difference. But I'm not sure I have, yet. [Neal Stephenson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson.md) · [Zodiac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac.md) · p. 88 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac/talking-to-cancer.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [guilt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/guilt.md), [illness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illness.md) > And I hadn't even told him the truth. Actually, the shit coming out of Basco's pipes was a hundred thousand times more concentrated than was legally allowed.... That kind of thing goes on all the time. But no matter how many diplomas are tacked to your wall, give people a figure like that and they'll pass you off as a flake. You can't get most people to believe how wildly the eco-laws get broken, but if I say "More than twice the legal limit," they get comfortably outraged. [Neal Stephenson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson.md) · [Zodiac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac.md) · p. 19 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac/and-i-hadnt.md) Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > One of the problems, hanging out with me, is that I can turn any topic into a toxic horror story. I've lost two girlfriends and a job by reading an ingredients label out loud, with annotations, at the wrong time. [Neal Stephenson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson.md) · [Zodiac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac.md) · p. 10 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac/one-of-the.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md) > The big lie of American capitalism is that corporations work in their own best interests. In fact they’re constantly doing things that will eventually bring them to their knees. Most of these blunders involve toxic chemicals that any competent chemist should know to be dangerous. They pump these things into the environment and don’t even try to protect themselves. The evidence is right there in public, almost as if they’d printed up signed confessions and sprinkled them out of airplanes. Sooner or later, someone shows up in a Zodiac and points to that evidence, and the result is devastation far worse than what a terrorist, a Boone, could manage with bombs and guns. All the old men within twenty miles who have come down with tumors become implacable enemies. All the women married to them, all the mothers of damaged children, and even those of undamaged ones. The politicians and the news media trample each other in their haste to pour hellfire down on that corporation. The transformation can happen overnight and it’s easy to bring about. You just have to show up and point your finger. [Neal Stephenson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson.md) · [Zodiac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac.md) · p. 57 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac/the-big-lie.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [capitalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capitalism.md) > I don’t mean the EPA, the chemical Keystone Kops. Offices full of mediocre chemists, led by the lowest bottom-feeders of all: political appointees. Expecting them to do anything controversial is like expecting a hay fever sufferer to harvest a field of ragweed. For God’s sake, they wouldn’t even admit that chlordane was dangerous. And if they don’t have the balls to take preventative measures, punitive action doesn’t even enter their minds. The laws are broken so universally that they don’t know what to do. They don’t even look for violators. [Neal Stephenson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson.md) · [Zodiac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac.md) · p. 57 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac/i-dont-mean.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [bureaucracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/bureaucracy.md) > Any property that's open to common use gets destroyed. Because everyone has incentive to use it to the max, but no one has incentive to maintain it. Like the water and the air. These guys have incentive to pollute the ocean, but no reason to clean it up. [Neal Stephenson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson.md) · [Zodiac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac.md) · p. 67 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac/any-property-thats.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [private property](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/private-property.md) > Those who are skeptical about carbon dioxide greenhouse warming might profitably note the massive greenhouse effect on Venus. No one proposes that Venus's greenhouse effect derives from imprudent Venusians who burned too much coal, drove fuel-inefficient autos, and cut down their forests. My point is different. The climatological history of our planetary neighbor, an otherwise Earthlike planet on which the surface became hot enough to melt tin or lead, is worth considering — especially by those who say that the increasing greenhouse effect on Earth will be self-correcting, that we don't really have to worry about it, or (you can see this in the publications of some groups that call themselves conservative) that the greenhouse effect is a "hoax". [Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Pale Blue Dot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot.md) · p. 227 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot/those-who-are.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [climate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/climate.md) > Our intelligence and our technology have given us the power to affect the climate. How will we use this power? Are we willing to tolerate ignorance and complacency in matters that affect the entire human family? Do we value short-term advantages above the welfare of the Earth? Or will we think on longer time scales, with concern for our children and our grandchildren, to understand and protect the complex life-support systems of our planet? The Earth is a tiny and fragile world. It needs to be cherished. [Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 103 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/our-intelligence-and.md) Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [climate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/climate.md) > Deploying today’s renewables and improving transmission couldn’t be more important. . . . Unless we use large amounts of nuclear energy . . . every path to zero in the United States will require us to install as much wind and solar power as we can build and find room for. . . . [M]ost countries aren’t as lucky as the United States when it comes to solar and wind resources. . . . That’s why, even as we deploy, deploy, deploy solar and wind, the world is going to need some new clean electricity inventions too. [Bill Gates](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates.md) · [How to Avoid a Climate Disaster](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster/deploying-todays-renewables.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md), [climate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/climate.md) > We should spend the next decade focusing on the technologies, [governmental] policies and market structures that will put us on the path to eliminating greenhouse gases by 2050. It's hard to think of a better response to a miserable [year of COVID-19 disruptions during] 2020 than spending the next ten years dedicating ourselves to this ambitious goal. [Bill Gates](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates.md) · [How to Avoid a Climate Disaster](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster.md) · p. 230 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster/we-should-spend.md) Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [climate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/climate.md)