Wangari Maathai Quotes About Environment

Quotes about: Environment

• Education, if it means anything, should not take people away from the land, but instill in them even more respect for it, because educated people are in a position to understand what is being lost. The future of the planet concerns all of us, and all of us should do what we can to protect it. As I told the foresters, and the women, you don't need a diploma to plant a tree.

  Wangari Maathai

  Mean, Land, People

• I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance.

  Wangari Maathai

  Environment, Protect, Governance

  "Kenyan Environmentalist Wins Peace Prize", www.foxnews.com. October 8, 2004.

• You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.

  Wangari Maathai

  People, Empowering, Helping

• In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace.

  Wangari Maathai

  Future, Rights, Vision

• Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking.

  Wangari Maathai

  Nature, Talking, Water

  Wangari Maathai's speech at Goldman Awards in San Francisco, April 24, 2006.

• The living conditions of the poor must be improved if we really want to save our environment

  Wangari Maathai

  Want, Environment, Poor

• We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible.

  Wangari Maathai

  Nature, Powerful, Government

• We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation to conserve the environment so that we can bequeath our children a sustainable world that benefits all.

  Wangari Maathai

  Inspiring, Children, Generations

  "Farewell Wangari Maathai, You Were a Global Inspiration – and My Heroine" by Joseph Kabiru, www.theguardian.com. September 26, 2011.

• It is evident that many wars are fought over resources which are now becoming increasingly scarce. If we conserved our resources better, fighting over them would not occur ... protecting the global environment is directly related to securing peace. Those of us who understand the complex concept of the environment have the burden to act. We must not tire, we must not give up, we must persist.

  Wangari Maathai

  Giving Up, War, Fighting

  "Kenyans gather to say goodbye to Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai" by Faith Karimi, www.cnn.com. October 13, 2011.

• We tend to put the environment last because we think the first thing we have to do is eliminate poverty. But you can't reduce poverty in a vacuum. You are doing it in an environment.

  Wangari Maathai

  Thinking, Vacuums, Lasts

• We need to promote development that does not destroy our environment.

  Wangari Maathai

  Doe, Needs, Development

• Those of us who witness the degraded state of the environment and the suffering that comes with it cannot afford to be complacent. We continue to be restless. If we really carry the burden, we are driven to action. We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!

  Wangari Maathai

  Giving Up, Suffering, Generations

• The essential role of the environment is still marginal in discussions about poverty. While we continue to debate these initiatives, environmental degradation, including the loss of biodiversity and topsoil, accelerates, causing development efforts to falter.

  Wangari Maathai

  Loss, Effort, Environmental

• It gradually became clear that the Green Belt Movement's work with communities to repair the degraded environment could not be done effectively without participants embracing a set of core spiritual values.

  Wangari Maathai

  Spiritual, Community, Done

  Wangari Maathai (2010). “Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World”, p.26, Image

• We tend to put the environment last because we think the first thing we have to do is eliminate poverty and send children to school and provide health.

  Wangari Maathai

  Children, School, Thinking

  Source: kenvironews.wordpress.com

• We see that the environment is something to exploit, because we see the environment in terms of minerals for example, or forests, or even raw materials that we produce on our land, or even land itself. We see it in terms of what we can exploit rather than the medium in which all of these activities have to take place.

  Wangari Maathai

  Land, Example, Raw Materials

  Source: kenvironews.wordpress.com

• You can't reduce poverty in a vacuum. You are doing it in an environment.

  Wangari Maathai

  Vacuums, Poverty, Environment

  Source: kenvironews.wordpress.com

• The women of the Green Belt Movement have learned about the causes and the symptoms of environmental degradation. They have begun to appreciate that they, rather than their government, ought to be the custodians of the environment.

  Wangari Maathai

  Government, Appreciate, Environmental

• If Africa is left behind, she is going to continue pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, especially carbon. She's going to continue logging the forests, she's going to continue burning charcoal, she is going to continue practicing agricultural activities that destroy the environment, and sooner or later Africa's problem will become a global problem.

  Wangari Maathai

  Atmosphere, Logging, Forests

  Source: kenvironews.wordpress.com

• Quite often when you help poor people, they don't think about the environment. They think about survival.

  Wangari Maathai

  Thinking, People, Survival

  Source: kenvironews.wordpress.com

• We refuse to share resources; we govern irresponsibly. If we are confident, if we have some of our cultural values, then we would be more committed to assisting our people out of poverty and creating an environment that can make it possible for our friends to assist us.

  Wangari Maathai

  Creating, People, Would Be

  Source: www.motherjones.com

• Sometimes when I talk to little children I remind them of the fact that when I was growing up myself, I used to play with frog eggs and tadpoles and I used to walk in the field, I used to literally copy whatever my mother was doing on the land. And that may be the reason why I eventually developed the passion for green and for the Earth. So it is extremely important for adults and especially those who are in charge of cities to make sure that we do not lose touch with the land and with the environment. And especially our children.

  Wangari Maathai

  Mother, Children, Growing Up

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

• People need open space. People need to bring their children into an area where they can play without restriction." And I was told, "This is development." And I said, "That is not development, definitely not sustainable development, definitely not responsible development. People need fresh air. They can do without buildings. They can do without concrete. But they cannot do without fresh air.

  Wangari Maathai

  Children, Air, Play

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