Ecological Crisis Quotes

• The abuse of the Earth is the ecological crisis.

  Vandana Shiva

  Abuse, Earth, Crisis

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• Nor do piecemeal steps however well intended, even partially resolve problems that have reached a universal, global and catastrophic character. If anything, partial 'solutions' serve merely as cosmetics to conceal the deep seated nature of the ecological crisis. They thereby deflect public attention and theoretical insight from an adequate understanding of the depth and scope of the necessary changes.

  Murray Bookchin

  Character, Understanding, Depth

  "The Ecology of Freedom". Book by Murray Bookchin, 1982.

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• The ecological crisis is doing what no other crisis in history has ever done - challenging us to a realization of a new humanity.

  Jean Houston

  History, Challenges, Humanity

  Jean Houston (2016). “Myth, Consciousness, and Psychic Research”, p.10, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The ecological crisis is a moral issue.

  Pope John Paul II

  Issues, Environmental, Moral

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• Our present ecological crisis, the biggest single practical threat to our human existence in the middle to long term, has, religious people would say, a great deal to do with our failure to think of the world as existing in relation to the mystery of God, not just as a huge warehouse of stuff to be used for our convenience.

  Rowan Williams

  Religious, Thinking, Long

  Rowan Williams (2007). “Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief”, p.50, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

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• It is not man the ecological crisis threatens to destroy but the quality of human life.

  Rene Dubos

  Men, Earth Day, Quality

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• We shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man.

  Lynn Townsend White, Jr.

  Christian, Mother, Nature

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• Man will survive as a species for one reason: He can adapt to the destructive effects of our power-intoxicated technology and of our ungoverned population growth, to the dirt, pollution and noise of a New York or Tokyo. And that is the tragedy. It is not man the ecological crisis threatens to destroy but the quality of human life.

  Rene Dubos

  New York, Technology, Men

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• We must speak more clearly about sexuality, contraception, about abortion, about values that control population, because the ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis. Cut the population by 90% and there aren't enough people left to do a great deal of ecological damage.

  Mikhail Gorbachev

  Cutting, Ebola, People

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• There's no such thing as a free lunch.

  Milton Friedman

  Lunch Break, Economics, Ecology

  1973 Lecture. The phrase is thought to have been coined anonymously, perhaps referring to the 19c US tradition of supplying food in bars to patrons buying drinks.

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• Ecology's implications for capitalism are too momentous for the capitalist to contemplate. The plutocrats are more wedded to their wealth than to the Earth upon which they live, more concerned with the fate of their fortunes than with the fate of humanity. The present ecological crisis has been created by the few at the expense of the many.

  Michael Parenti

  Fate, Political, Humanity

  Michael Parenti (2007). “Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader”, p.97, City Lights Books

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• We do not have an ecological crisis. The ecosphere has a human crisis. Our 'story' about our place in the scheme of things has somehow gone awry in the industrial age.

  William E. Rees

  Age, Gone, Stories

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• And just as the false assumption that we are not connected to the earth has led to the ecological crisis, so to the equally false assumption that we arenot connected to each other that has led to our social crisis.

  Al Gore

  Earth, Assumption, Social

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• A case can certainly be made that Christians bear a major responsibility for our ecological crisis. But the fault is not their biblical but their unbiblical view of nature. Christians have long failed to understand what the Bible really teaches concerning nature and our responsibility for it. For this there is no excuse. Repentance must be our first response. Our second response must then be to right the wrongs of our faulty understanding and act accordingly. We are all responsible to know what can be known of God's will for nature, and we are then responsible to act on that knowledge.

  James W. Sire

  Christian, Responsibility, Biblical

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• Let’s start with the most prominent ecological crisis of our time: global warming. When you look seriously at the numbers, you find that switching from a meat-based to a plant-based diet would do more to curb and reverse global warming than any other initiative.

  T. Colin Campbell

  Numbers, Meat, Looks

  T. Colin Campbell, Howard Jacobson (2013). “Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition”, p.167, BenBella Books

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• Women must see that there can be no liberation for them and no solution to the ecological crisis within a society whose fundamental model of relationships continues to be one of domination. They must unite the demands of the women's movement with those of the ecological movement to envision a radical reshaping of the basic socioeconomic relations and the underlying values of this [modern industrial] society.

  Rosemary Radford Ruether

  Fundamentals, Movement, Demand

  Rosemary Skinner Keller, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Marie Cantlon (2006). “Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America: Women in North American Catholicism”, p.1111, Indiana University Press

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• Women's struggle for equality worldwide is about more than equality between men and women. Our struggle is about reversing the trends of social, economic, political, and ecological crisis - a global nervous breakdown! Our struggle is about creating sustainable lives and attainable dreams.

  Bella Abzug

  Change, Dream, Struggle

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• Certain elements of today's ecological crisis reveal its moral character. First among these is the indiscriminate application of advances in science and technology. Many recent discoveries have brought undeniable benefits to humanity. Indeed, they demonstrate the nobility of the human vocation to participate responsibly in God's creative action in the world. Unfortunately, it is now clear that the application of these discoveries in the fields of industry and agriculture have produced harmful long-term effects.

  Pope John Paul II

  Character, Technology, Agriculture

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• More science and more technology are not going to get us out of the present ecological crises until we find a new religion, or rethink our old one.

  Lynn Townsend White, Jr.

  Technology, Crisis, Ecological

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• I firmly believe that contemporary spiritual use of entheogenic drugs is one of humankind's brightest hopes for overcoming the ecological crisis from which we threaten the biosphere and jeopardize our own survival, for Homo sapiens is close to the head of the list of endangered species.

  Jonathan Ott

  Spiritual, Believe, Drug

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• The ecological crisis we face is so obvious that it becomes easy...to join the dots and see that everything is interconnected. This is the ecological thought. And the more we consider it, the more our world opens up." The ecological thought "...is a vast, sprawling mesh of interconnection without a definite center or edge. It is radical intimacy, coexistence with other beings, sentient and otherwise.

  Timothy Morton

  Our World, Earth, Faces

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• The ecological crisis shows the urgency of a solidarity which embraces time and space... A greater sense of intergenerational solidarity is urgently needed. Future generations cannot be saddled with the cost of our use of common environmental resources.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Space, Environmental, Generations

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• Life and families and babies are all joyous gifts. But if we do not begin to truly account for our numbers, we will surely create an ecological crisis that will only lead to anguish and despair.

  Jason Alexander

  Baby, Numbers, Despair

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• At this point in our global ecological crisis, the survival of humanity will require a fundamental shift in our attitude toward nature: from finding out how we can dominate and manipulate nature to how we can learn from her. In this brilliant and hopeful book, Jay Harman shows us how far the new field of Biomimicry has already progressed toward this goal. The Shark's Paintbrush makes for fascinating and joyful reading - much needed in these dark times.

  Fritjof Capra

  Attitude, Reading, Book

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• If the ecological crisis, for example, is to be solved and if we are to promote genuine justice and thus bring real peace to the planet-and with it the possibility of improving lives on every level, not just economically, socially, and politically, but spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually-then, just on a practical level, we need to have all of the religions working together.

  Wayne Teasdale

  Real, Justice, Working Together

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