Biodiversity Quotes

• Uniformity is not nature's way; diversity is nature's way.

  Vandana Shiva

  Nature, Diversity, Brotherhood

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• Biodiversity is the greatest treasure we have... Its diminishment is to be prevented at all cost.

  Thomas Eisner

  Greatest Treasure, Cost, Complexity

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• Look closely at nature. Every species is a masterpiece, exquisitely adapted to the particular environment in which it has survived. Who are we to destroy or even diminish biodiversity?

  E. O. Wilson

  Looks, Environment, Masterpiece

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• 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.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Nature, Fighting, Emotional

  Stephen Jay Gould (1993). “Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history”, Vintage

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• We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.

  E. O. Wilson

  Nature, Mean, Humanity

  "The Diversity of Life". Book by Edward O. Wilson, 1992.

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• We share this planet with many species. It is our responsibility to protect them, both for their sakes and our own.

  Pamela A. Matson

  Responsibility, Sake, Share

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• The wealth of the nation is its air, water, soil, forests, minerals, rivers, lakes, oceans, scenic beauty, wildlife habitats and biodiversity... that's all there is. That's the whole economy. That's where all the economic activity and jobs come from. These biological systems are the sustaining wealth of the world.

  Gaylord Nelson

  Jobs, Ocean, Rivers

  Gaylord Nelson, Paul A. Wozniak, Susan M. Campbell (2002). “Beyond Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise”, p.157, Univ of Wisconsin Press

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• Biodiversity starts in the distant past and it points toward the future.

  Frans Lanting

  Past

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• Each species on our planet plays a role in the healthy functioning of natural ecosystems, on which humans depend.

  William H. Schlesinger

  Ecosystems, Play, Healthy

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• Biodiversity is the totality of all inherited variation in the life forms of Earth, of which we are one species. We study and save it to our great benefit. We ignore and degrade it to our great peril.

  E. O. Wilson

  Variation, Benefits, Earth

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• Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.

  William Wordsworth

  Life, Education, Teacher

  William Wordsworth (1837). “The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth: Together with a Description of the Country of the Lakes in the North of England, Now First Published with His Works ...”, p.337

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• I can't imagine anything more important than air, water, soil, energy and biodiversity. These are the things that keep us alive.

  David Suzuki

  Air, Water, Important

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• Cultivating and conserving diversity is no luxury in our times: it is a survival imperative.

  Vandana Shiva

  Luxury, Diversity, Survival

  Vandana Shiva (2005). “Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace”, p.94, Zed Books

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• For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Nature, Environmental, Links

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• When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

  John Muir

  Motivational, Wisdom, Nature

  John Muir (2011). “My First Summer in the Sierra: Illustrated Edition”, p.104, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• If we pollute the air, water and soil that keep us alive and well, and destroy the biodiversity that allows natural systems to function, no amount of money will save us.

  David Suzuki

  Air, Water, Positive Energy

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• Our health relies entirely on the vitality of our fellow species on Earth.

  Harrison Ford

  Strength, Nature, Health

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

  Fritjof Capra

  Ecosystems, Broken, Community

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• We advocate biodiversity for biodiversity's sake. It may take our extinction to set things straight.

  David Foreman

  May, Extinction, Sake

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• The preservation of biodiversity is not just a job for governments. International and non-governmental organisations, the private sector and each and every individual have a role to play in changing entrenched outlooks and ending destructive patterns of behaviour

  Kofi Annan

  Nature, Jobs, Government

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

  Harrison Ford

  Strength, Future, Medicine

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• Without knowing it, we utilize hundreds of products each day that owe their origin to wild animals and plants. Indeed our welfare is intimately tied up with the welfare of wildlife. Well may conservationists proclaim that by saving the lives of wild species, we may be saving our own.

  Norman Myers

  Nature, Animal, Knowing

  Norman Myers (1983). “A Wealth of Wild Species: Storehouse for Human Welfare”

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• Every time we lose a species webreak a life chain which has evolved over 3.5 billion years.

  Jeff McNeely

  Years, Chains, Complexity

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• We develop our beautiful planet in such a way that we brush aside the species... we risk creating a wasteland, where our aspirations will ultimately wither and die

  Queen Noor of Jordan

  Beautiful, Creating, Risk

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• To many people, 'biodiversity' is almost synonymous with the word 'nature,' and 'nature' brings to mind steamy forests and the big creatures that dwell there. Fair enough. But biodiversity is much more than that, for it encompasses not only the diversity of species, but also the diversity within species.

  Cary Fowler

  People, Diversity, Mind

  "Of Pandas and Peas: Saving the Diversity Within Species". www.huffingtonpost.com.

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