“Thus, human beings are now carrying out a large scale geophysical experiment of the kind that could not have happened in the past...Within a few centuries we are returning to the atmosphere and oceans the concentrated organic carbon stored in sedimentary rocks over hundreds of millions of years.” YearsHumansKindPastEnergyHuman BeingsMillionsEnvironmentHappenedRocksCenturyOceanClimate ChangeScalesExperimentsAtmosphereCarbonLarge Scale Author:Roger Revelle
“Eventually man, too, found his way back to the sea. Standing on its shores, he must have looked out upon it with wonder and curiosity, compounded with an unconscious recognition of his lineage. He could not physically re-enter the ocean as the seals and whales had done. But over the centuries, with all the skill and ingenuity and reasoning powers of his mind, he has sought to explore and investigate even its most remote parts, so that he might re-enter it mentally and imaginatively.” MenWayMindDoneMightFoundWonderSeaCenturySkillsOceanStandingCuriosityRecognitionReasoningUnconsciousShoreWhalesIngenuitySealsLineage Book:The Sea Around Us Source: The Sea Around Us
“The world's in a bad way, my man, And bound to be worse before it mends; Better lie up in the mountain here Four or five centuries, While the stars go over the lonely ocean.” MenWorldWayLyingStarsFiveFourCenturyMountainOceanLonelyBounds Book:The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers Source: The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers
“Our lives are waves that come up out of the ocean of eternity, break upon the beach of earth, and lapse back to the ocean of eternity. Some are sunlit, some run in storm and rain; one is a quiet ripple, another is a thunderous breaker; and once in many centuries comes a great tidal wave that sweeps over a continent; but all go back to the sea and lie equally level there.” LifeRunningEarthLyingLevelsBreakOur LivesSeaCenturyQuietOceanRainEternityWaveCome UpStormBeachContinentsRippleLapsesTidal Waves Author:Austin O'Malley
“Wealth from trade was the mainspring of Western material advance; the visible agents of change were great guns. These came of age in Europe in the 15th century. On land their potency in reducing castle walls favoured central over local power, since in general only monarchs could afford siege-trains; so nation-states were consolidated and extended into great territorial empires. At sea, guns transformed sailing ships into mobile castles virtually impregnable to opponents who lacked equally powerful ordnance. With the ocean-going gunned warship, western Europe began to extend around the globe.” StatesAgeNationsWealthPowerfulSeaLandCenturyMaterialsWallOceanGunEuropeTradeTrainWesternLocalsShipsAgentsOpponentsVisibleEmpiresTransformedGlobesSailingCastlesMobileReducingMonarchsSiegePotencyTerritorialSailing ShipsWestern EuropeWarshipsOrdnanceCastle Walls Author:Peter Padfield
“We are not, of course, optimistic about our chances of success. Some form of ecocatastrophe, if not thermonuclear war, seems almost certain to overtake us before the end of the century. (The inability to forecast exactly which one - whether plague, famine, the poisoning of the oceans, drastic climatic change, or some disaster entirely unforeseen - is hardly grounds for complacency.)” IfsWarEndsSeemsFormCertainCoursesChanceCenturyOceanDisasterOptimisticInabilityPlagueComplacencyFamineNuclear WarPoisoningForecastsDrasticUnforeseen Author:John Holdren
“Does it seem all but incredible to you that intelligence should travel for two thousand miles, along those slender copper lines, far down in the all but fathomless Atlantic; never before penetrated … save when some foundering vessel has plunged with her hapless company to the eternal silence and darkness of the abyss? Does it seem … but a miracle … that the thoughts of living men … should burn over the cold, green bones of men and women, whose hearts, once as warm as ours, burst as the eternal gulfs closed and roared over them centuries ago?” MenShouldHeartDoeTwoSeemsLinesSilenceCompanyDarknessCenturyColdThousandTravelOceanEternalMen And WomenMiracleGreenIncrediblesIntelligenceWarmBonesMilesAbyssVesselSlenderShipwreckThousand MilesCopperAtlantic Ocean Author:Edward Everett
“I look at it this way... For centuries now, man has done everything he can to destroy, defile, and interfere with nature: clear-cutting forests, strip-mining mountains, poisoning the atmosphere, over-fishing the oceans, polluting the rivers and lakes, destroying wetlands and aquifers... so when nature strikes back, and smacks him on the head and kicks him in the nuts, I enjoy that. I have absolutely no sympathy for human beings whatsoever. None. And no matter what kind of problem humans are facing, whether it's natural or man-made, I always hope it gets worse.” MenWayHumansLooksKindMadeMatterDoneProblemEnjoyNaturalHuman BeingsClearCuttingCenturyMountainOceanRiversNo Matter WhatStrikesForestsAtmosphereKicksLakesFishingDestroyingNutsInterferePoisoningMiningSmackNo SympathyStrike BackRivers And LakesWetlandsAquifersClear Cutting Author:George Carlin
“There is some evidence that average wave heights are slowly rising, and that freak waves of eighty or ninety feet are becoming more common. Wave heights off the coast of England have risen an average of 25 percent over the past couple of decades, which converts to a twenty-foot increase in the highest waves over the next half century. One cause may be the tightening of environmental laws, which has reduced the amount of oil flushed into the oceans by oil tankers.” MayPastLawNextCausesWaterCommonHalfFeetCenturyAmountCoupleBecomingOceanHighestPercentEvidenceIncreaseEnglandTwentiesEnvironmentalAverageWaveOilDecadesHeightRisingFreakCoastNinetyEightyRisenOver The PastBecoming More Author:Sebastian Junger
“We have converted huge swaths of land and ocean into human habitats where we live and grow food and harvest energy. But there's been a sea change in the past century.” HumansPastEnergyGrowsSeaLandCenturyHugeOceanHarvestHabitatSea Change Author:Annalee Newitz