Quotes About Sustainability

But there's another, much darker, way in which Sylvia Earle helps us understand the size of the ocean. And that's to point out that, vast as it is, it's not so big that we can't screw it up.

There's something missing in how we inform the youngsters coming along about what matters in the world. We teach them the letters and numbers, but we fail to inform them about the importance of our connection with the living world

It takes 25 years or so for a male sperm whale to reach the edge of social maturity, when it attains the size and weight of those I saw being butchered. It took less than four hours to transform those once vibrant creatures into the basic ingredients of candle wax, lubricating oils, cosmetics, fertilizer, ivory trinkets, and food for domesticated animals.

Far and away the biggest threat to the ocean is ignorance. It's a lack of understanding that what we put in, what we take out matters—not just to the ocean, but matters to us. The ocean cannot be regarded as the planet's ultimate dumpster or the ultimate place to get free food.

For the blind poor, Rx: bleed. For yourself; Rx: love nothing. Sow rows of onions only. Plant turnips in the dark of the moon.

Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water.

Work is for people who don't know how to fish.

We return to you, O earth, the things which you have given us willingly and most graciously; with our hearts, hands and minds, in the best way we know how.

Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a fish a man, and he'll eat for weeks!

of it was a plastic bottle

The American Dream was just then beginning to be defined by wealth at the expense of exploitable natural resources

Eating a creature shouldn't be a light thing.

Gradually, after being the target a few times of a similar capriciousness, which he discerned as default behavior for most people, and not liking it, Paul learned to not be more generous or enthusiastic or attentive than he could sustain regardless of his mood and to not talk to people if his only reason to was because he felt lonely or bored

Let's throw away our throwaway culture

Love things that last

The twentieth century was a horrible detour in the evolution of the human habitat. We were building more for cars' mobility than children's happiness. —Enrique Peñalosa, 2008

Gandhi said that we have enough resources for the need of us all, but not for the greed of us all," he recited. "And this is Thomas Kocherry's quotation: 'The life of the planet, and the dependent health of humanity, cannot be sacrificed for the greed of a few.

look at the company you work for and see what effect they are having on the environment and the people in that environment; see what damage is being done. Even if we personally are not doing anything wrong, if our livelihood is based on something even slightly harmful, subconsciously something happens. That mental state will always disturb our mind.

Stratton envisioned a day when the human species could survive as long as its own behavior allowed, when it could stand or fall based purely on its own actions, and not simply vanish once some predetermined life span had elapsed. Other species might bloom and wither like flowers over seasons of geologic time, but humans would endure for as long as they determined.

Address these environmental issues and you will address every issue known to man. And we keep dabbling in things that aren't really that important in the long term.

We have a project with Unocal here in Los Angeles, where we as an environmental organization, the oil company, and the state all get together to promote the recycling of used motor oil.

We're not trying to reinvent the wheel for any environmental organization to claim sole responsibility for any kind of victory is insane, because everybody attacks these problems as a group.

I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.

As the owner of the Arison Group, a philanthropic and business enterprise that spans across 40 countries in 5 continents, my ongoing challenge is to bridge the gap between what I envision and its understanding and practical implementation. The Arison Group operates to realize the overall vision of Doing Good.