Quotes from Maurice Strong

We're either going to save Ihe world or no one will be saved.

Well they do have a use, but we should never believe that any international conference is going to suddenly solve problems like the condition of the global environment.

Most of my supporters are people who actually know me. I just continue to do the best I can and I don't bother to try and respond to every little bit because the best response is just to keep on doing what you think is right.

Either we reduce the world's population voluntarily or nature will do this for us, but brutally

Ted Turner is still a leader. And he sets a great example. His ability financially has been reduced, but his influence and his example still is an important asset to the whole environmental movement.

Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsibility to bring this about?

The Prime Minister of India, at a meeting that I co-chaired a few months ago, stated that any development that is not sustainable is not development.

Nevertheless, the concept of sustainable development is now known - even amongst those who haven't accepted it - and it's recognized, debated and followed by an increasing number of businesses.

What pleases me most is that sustainable development is on almost everybody's agenda now.

Also, it is interesting that developing countries, with China and India perhaps in the lead, where the future of the global environment will be decided are now on board with the case for sustainable development.

Rumors of my wealth are greatly exaggerated. I have never been interested in money.

I am convinced the prophets of doom have to be taken seriously.

Inertia is a powerful force in human and political affairs.

The combination of population growth and the growth in consumption is a danger that we are not prepared for and something we will need global co-operation on.

Not to say that corporations are perfect today, but even grand corporations like Dupont have made immense progress in translating some of their past environmentally damaging practices into new profit opportunities.

We owe at least this much to future generations, from whom we have borrowed a fragile planet called Earth.

The tendency is to keep doing things the way you have done them.

A citizen of an advanced industrialized nation consumes in six months the energy and raw materials that have to last the citizen of a developing country his entire lifetime.

My belief is that the purpose of economic life is to meet the social needs of people.

Anyone who is seriously interested in me would usually do a little more homework and realise that the extreme criticisms are almost exclusively ideologically based.

We may get to the point where the only way of saving the world will be for industrial civilization to collapse.

I am retired from all my official roles, but I am still very active. I have close relationships at the U.N. I don't have any role at the U.N, but I'm still quite cooperative with a number of U.N. activities, in particular to China and that region.

We in the industrialized world make a greater difference because our ecological footprint, our impact on the condition of the environment, is 40 to 50 times larger than that of people in the developing world.

A shift is necessary toward lifestyles less geared to environmental damaging consumption patterns.