“In the last few decades entire new categories of waste have come to plague and menace the American scene. Pollution is growing at a rapid rate. Pollution destroys beauty and menaces health. It cuts down on efficiency, reduces property values and raises taxes. Almost all these wastes and pollutions are the result of activities carried on for the benefit of man. A prime national goal must be an environment that is pleasing to the senses and healthy to live in. Our Government is already doing much in this field. We have made significant progress. But more must be done.” MenMadeDoneGovernmentLastsValuesGoalResultsBeautyEnvironmentCuttingGrowingProgressFieldsHealthySceneActivityTaxesWasteBenefitsRaisesPropertyRateDecadesSensesSignificantPrimeCategoriesPollutionEfficiencyPlagueRapidsMenacePollution Control Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
“The term ‘free market’ is really a euphemism. What the far right actually means by this term is ‘lawless market.’ In a lawless market, entrepreneurs can get away with privatizing the benefits of the market (profits) while socializing its costs (like pollution).” MeanTermCostBenefitsEntrepreneurProfitGet AwayPollutionFree MarketEuphemismSocializing Author:Steve Kangas
“(The processes are) doubly ruinous: they impoverish the earth by hastily removing, for the benefit of a few generations, the common resources which, once expended and dissipated, can never be restored; and second, in its technique, its habits, its processes, the paleotechnic period is equally inimical to the earth considered as a human habitat, by its destruction of the beauty of the landscape, its ruining of streams, its pollution of drinking water, its filling the air with a finely divided carboniferous deposit, which chokes both life and vegetation.” HumansEarthProcessWaterCommonGenerationsAirHabitPeriodsBenefitsResourcesDestructionDrinkingTechniqueLandscapeStreamsDividedPollutionFillingChokeHabitatDepositsDrinking WaterVegetation Author:Lewis Mumford
“Very few people would choose to have even the most fabled assortment of goods if it meant getting cancer within the year. But the choice involves not the certainty of cancer very soon but an increased probability of cancer at some time in the future. The cancers are no less real; millions will die painfully and prematurely because of what we do to our environment. But the choice is not an easily visualizable one, and our capacity of denial comes strongly into play - as it tends to whenever we must weigh future costs against immediate benefits.” PeopleIfsYearsRealPlayDiesChoicesMillionsEnvironmentCostBenefitsCapacityEnvironmentalCancerCertaintyDenialGoodsPollutionProbabilityOur Environment Author:Paul L Wachtel
“We can decide that the presence of cancer-causing substances in our air, water, and food is too expensive. A 2009 study, for example, has found that coal miners in Appalachia costs the region five times more in premature deaths, including from cancer, than it provides to the region in jobs, taxes, and economic benefits. In California, the production and use of hazardous chemicals cost the state $2.6 billion in 2004 alone in lost wages and health-care expenses to treat workers and children with pollution-linked diseases.” ChildrenStatesUseCareJobsFoundLostWaterStudyFiveAirEconomicExampleCostTaxesDiseaseBenefitsTreatsEnvironmentalWorkersIncludingCancerProductionsBillionsHealth CareSubstanceCaliforniaExpensiveRegionsExpensesChemicalsPollutionWagesCoalLinkedPrematureMinersAppalachiaCoal MinersPremature Death Author:Sandra Steingraber
“We know that to wage a nuclear war today, for example, would be a form of suicide; or that to pollute the air or the oceans in order to achieve some short-term benefit would be to destroy the very basis for our survival.” KnowsWarWould BeTodayFormOrderTermAirAchieveExampleOceanBenefitsSurvivalBasesSuicideEnvironmentalNuclearPollutionShort TermNuclear War Book:Path To Tranquility Source: Path To Tranquility
“While the rich reap most of the benefits of technological development, the poor bear an unequal burden of dealing with the consequences of the resulting increased pollution. The poor continue to live in greatest proximity to the sources of pollution, the infrastructure and machinery of industry. They work in the most polluted and physically dangerous workplaces. And these same individuals, living and working closest to the sources of environmental catastrophe, are also the ones most lacking decent health care.” CareIndividualPoorRichDangerousSourceDevelopmentIndustryBearsBenefitsConsequenceEnvironmentalBurdenHealth CareDecentPollutionClosestLackingTechnologicalWorkplaceCatastropheInfrastructureMachineryReapProximityTechnological Development Author:James H. Cone
“Doing all we can to combat climate change comes with numerous benefits, from reducing pollution and associated health care costs to strengthening and diversifying the economy by shifting to renewable energy, among other measures.” CareEnergyEconomyCostBenefitsClimateClimate ChangeHealth CareCombatPollutionShiftingReducingStrengtheningRenewable EnergyHealth Care Costs Author:David Suzuki
“Who gets the risks? The risks are given to the consumer, the unsuspecting consumer and the poor work force. And who gets the benefits? The benefits are only for the corporations, for the money makers.” GivenForcePoorRiskBenefitsEnvironmentalConsumersCorporationsMakersPollutionUnsuspectingMoney Maker Author:Cesar Chavez