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Earth in the Balance: Forging a New Common Purpose

Book by Al Gore · 17 quotes · Environment, Choices, Civilization

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Earth in the Balance: Forging a New Common Purpose Quotes

“The more deeply I search for the roots of the global environmental crisis, the more I am convinced that it is an outer manifestation of an inner crisis that is, for lack of a better word, spiritual... what other word describes the collection of values and assumptions that determine our basic understanding of how we fit into the universe?”

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“We now face the prospect of a kind of global civil war between those who refuse to consider the consequences of civilization's relentless advance and those who refuse to be silent partners in the destruction. More and more people of conscience are joining the effort to resist, but the time has come to make this struggle the central organizing principle of world civilizations.”

PeopleWorldKindWarFacesEffortPrinciplesStruggleCivilizationConscienceConsequenceDestructionSilentRefusePartnersCivil WarRelentlessJoining
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“In the end, we must restore a balance within ourselves between who we are and what we are doing. Each of us must take a greater personal responsibility for this deteriorating global environment; each of us must take a hard look at the habits of mind and action that reflect - and have led to - this grave crisis.”

MindLooksEndsHardActionResponsibilityEnvironmentGreaterHabitBalanceCrisisGravesWho We ArePersonal ResponsibilityHabits Of MindDeteriorating
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“The global environment crisis is, as we say in Tennessee, real as rain, and I cannot stand the thought of leaving my children with a degraded earth and a diminished future.”

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“One tragic example of the loss of forests and then water is found in Ethiopia. The amount of its forested land has decreased from 40 to 1 percent in the last four decades. Concurrently, the amount of rainfall has declined to the point where the country is rapidly becoming a wasteland.”

CountryLastsScienceFoundWaterLossEnvironmentFourLandExampleAmountBecomingPercentEnvironmentalDecadesForestsTragicEthiopiaWastelandRainfall
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“The choice to 'do nothing' in response to the mounting evidence is actually a choice to continue and even accelerate the reckless environmental destruction that is creating the catastrophe at hand.”

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“The insistence on complete certainty about the full details of global warming-the most serious threat we have ever faced-is actually an effort to avoid facing the awful, uncomfortable truth: that we must act boldly, decisively, comprehensively, and quickly, even before we know every last detail about the crisis. Those who continue to argue that the appropriate response is merely additional research are simply seeking to camouflage timidity or protect their vested interest in the status quo.”

KnowsLastsInterestEffortSeriousProtectResearchCrisisThreatResponseClimate ChangeDetailsSeekingArguingAwfulCertaintyUncomfortableGlobal WarmingAppropriateStatus QuoTimidityInsistenceVested InterestsCamouflage
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“We are monumentally distracted by a pervasive technological culture that appears to have a life of its own, one that insists on our full attention, continually seducing us and pulling us away from the opportunity to experience directly the true meaning of our own lives.”

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“The struggle to save the global environment is in one way much more difficult than the struggle to vanquish Hitler, for this time the war is with ourselves. We are the enemy, just as we have only ourselves as allies.”

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“The Pacific Yew can be cut down and processed to produce a potent chemical, taxol, which offers some promise of curing certain forms of lung, breast and ovarian cancer in patients who would otherwise quickly die... It seems an easy choice - sacrifice the tree for a human life - until one learns that three trees must be destroyed for each patient treated.”

HumansSeemsFormCertainDiesChoicesThreeEasyCuttingSacrificeTreeProducePromiseOffersDown AndPatientCancerTreatedDestroyedHuman LifeBreastsChemicalsLungsPacificOvarian CancerYew
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“It seems an easy choice - sacrifice the tree for a human life - until one learns that three trees must be destroyed for each patient treated. Suddenly we must confront some tough questions. How important are the medical needs of future generations?”

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