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Gifford Pinchot

Gifford Pinchot Biography

Former Governor of Pennsylvania

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“I ran into the gigantic and gigantically wasteful lumbering of great Sequoias, many of whose trunks were so huge they had to be blown apart before they could be handled. I resented then, and I still resent, the practice of making vine stakes hardly bigger than walking sticks out of these greatest of living things.”

StillsSciencePracticeEnvironmentTreeHugeWalkingBiggerSticksEnvironmentalRanStakesLiving ThingsResentVinesTrunksWalking Sticks
Author:Gifford Pinchot
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“The lumbermen...regarded forest devastation as normal and second growth as a delusion of fools....And as for sustained yield, no such idea had ever entered their heads. The few friends the forest had were spoken of, when they were spoken of at all, as impractical theorists, fanatics, or "denudatics," more or less touched in the head. What talk there was about forest protection was no more to the average American that the buzzing of a mosquito, and just about as irritating.”

IdeasGrowthTreeFoolNormalAverageProtectionForestsTouchedDelusionYieldFanaticsIrritatingMosquitoesDevastationTheoristsFew Friends
Author:Gifford Pinchot
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“The American Colossus was fiercely intent on appropriating and exploiting the riches of all continents - grasping with both hands, reaping where he had not sown, wasting what he thought would last forever. New railroads were opening new territory. The exploiters were pushing farther and farther into the wilderness. The man who could get his hands on the biggest slice of natural resources was the best citizen. Wealth and virtue were supposed to trot in double harness.”

MenHandsLastsNaturalWealthForeverVirtueLandHe ManCitizensResourcesRichesOpeningPushingWildernessTerritoryContinentsNatural ResourcesRailroadsGraspingHarnessNew TerritoryColossus
Book:Breaking New Ground
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“Without natural resources life itself is impossible. From birth to death, natural resources, transformed for human use, feed, clothe, shelter, and transport us. Upon them we depend for every material necessity, comfort, convenience, and protection in our lives. Without abundant resources prosperity is out of reach.”

HumansUseNaturalOur LivesImpossibleMaterialsDependsBirthComfortResourcesProsperityProtectionTransformedShelterConvenienceTransportNatural Resources
Book:Breaking New Ground
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