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David W. Orr

David W. Orr Books

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“In an ecological perspective, in other words, there are few accidents or anomalies, only outcomes based on system structure and dynamics. Climate change and glittering malls, Calcuttan poverty and sybaritic wealth, biotic impoverishment and economic growth, militarism and terrorism, global domination and utter vulnerability are not different things but manifestations of a single system.”

DifferentGrowthWealthPovertyEconomicPerspectiveStructureClimateEnvironmentalClimate ChangeTerrorismAccidentsManifestationOutcomesVulnerabilityDifferent ThingsDominationEconomic GrowthEcologicalMallsDynamicsMilitarismAnomalies
Book:The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror
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“For three decades and longer we have been developing the ideas, science, and technological wherewithal to build a sustainable society. The public knows of these things only in fragments, but not as a coherent and practical agenda indeed the only practical course available. That is our fault and we should start now to put a positive agenda before the public that includes the human and economic advantages of better technology, integrated planning, coherent purposes, and foresight.”

KnowsShouldHumansHas BeensIdeasPurposeThreeCoursesTechnologyEconomicAdvantageFaultsEnvironmentalAvailableDecadesPlanningPracticalsDevelopingAgendasSustainabilityTechnologicalFragmentsIntegratedForesight
Author:David W. Orr
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“It is much easier to make intellectual messes than it is to clarify complicated issues, especially when real solutions would challenge the status quo and require much careful thought across many fields of knowledge. Problems of climatic change, biotic impoverishment, population growth, and the choices to be made by various technologies and the transition to a sustainable and decent society with an economy that works over the long-term are difficult, complex, and intertwined problems with many possible answers.”

LongMadeRealProblemChoicesDifficultGrowthTermChallengesAnswersTechnologyEconomyIssuesFieldsEasierIntellectualSolutionsComplexesEnvironmentalPopulationCarefulVariousComplicatedMessLong TermDecentTransitionSustainabilityStatus QuoIntertwinedPopulation Growth
Book:The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror
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“The dialogue about sustainability is about a change in the human trajectory that will require us to rethink old assumptions and engage the large questions of the human condition that some presume to have been solved once and for all.”

HumansHas BeensConditionsEnvironmentalDialogueAssumptionHuman ConditionSustainabilityTrajectory
Book:The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror
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“Unrestrained automobility, hedonism, individualism, and conspicuous consumption cannot be sustained because they take more than they give back. A spiritually impoverished world cannot be sustained because meaninglessness, anomie, and despair will corrode the desire to be sustained and the belief that humanity is worth sustaining. But these are the very things that distinguish the modern age from its predecessors, Genuine sustainability, in other words, will come not from superficial changes but from a deeper process akin to humankind growing up to a fuller stature.”

WorldGivingAgeDesireHumanityBeliefProcessGrowing UpGrowingModernDespairEnvironmentalDeeperGenuineIndividualismSustainabilityHumankindConsumptionSuperficialGiving BackStatureSustainingPredecessorsMeaninglessnessHedonismModern AgeConspicuous ConsumptionAnomie
Author:David W. Orr
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“... laws governing pollution tend to move pollutants from one medium to another. So, for example, we scrub SO2 from power plants only to dispose toxic sludge on land. We "clean" water only to disperse toxic-laced solids on farmland or landfills. Pollution control becomes a kind of giant shell game by which we move pollutants between air, water, groundwater, and land.”

KindMovingLawGamesWaterAirLandExampleCleanPlantEnvironmentalMediumsGiantsToxicPollutionShellsGoverningClean WaterPower PlantsFarmlandLandfillsPollution ControlGroundwater
Book:Hope Is an Imperative: The Essential David Orr
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“There is a myth that the purpose of education is to give one the means for upward mobility and success. The plain truth is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does need desperately more peacemakers, healers, restorers, story tellers, and lovers of every shape and form.”

PeopleNeedsGivingMeanDoeStoriesFormPurposeSuccessfulPlanetsLoversTruth IsShapesMythSuccessful PeopleHealerMobilityPeacemakerPurpose Of EducationUpward Mobility
Author:David W. Orr
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“It is not education, but education of a certain kind, that will serve us. And the current model of western, urban-centered, school-based, education, which is so often more focused on turning children into efficient corporate units rather than curious and open-minded adults, will only lead us further down the wrong path.”

KindChildrenSchoolCertainPathModelsAdultsWesternCurrentsFocusedCuriousCorporateEfficientUrbanUnitsOpen MindedWrong Path
Author:David W. Orr
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“What can educators do to foster real intelligence?.. .We can attempt to teach the things that one might imagine the earth would teach us: silence, humility, holiness, connectedness, courtesy, beauty, celebration, giving, restoration, obligation, and wildness.”

GivingRealMightEarthSilenceBeautyTeachTeacherImagineHumilityIntelligenceObligationHolinessCelebrationCourtesyRestorationEducatorEnvironmentalistConnectednessWildnessInspirational TeacherReal Intelligence
Author:David W. Orr
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