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Deep Ecology Quotes

Browse 25 quotes about Deep Ecology.

Deep Ecology Quotes

“We are the dust of the stars and the rays of sunlight shining on our skin. We are the soil where plants grow. We are the oxygen inhaled and the carbon dioxide exhaled. We are the water flowing through our own veins and within each of our cells. We are the energy tingling in our chests and limbs. We are the present moment. We are our ancestors and our descendants. We are the ripples left on this Earth, and thus, we are the Earth.”

“When the anthropologist asked the Kwakiutl for a map of their coast, they told him stories: "Here? Salmon gather. Here? Sea otter camps. Here seal sleep. Here we say body covered with mouths." How can a place have a name? A man, a woman may have a name, but they die. We are a story until we die. Then our names are very dangerous. A place is a story happening many times.”

“Many Indigenous Peoples understand that, as humans, we need a healthy foundation based on a sacred connection to the land. They know that genuine sustainability entails living in accordance with values rooted in natural laws and teachings that acknowledge the sacredness of nature; these ways of life involve sacred duties and responsibilities.”

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”

“In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”

“We experience ourselves our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.”

“Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this volume under the form of an abstract, I by no means expect to convince experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine... I look with confidence to the future, to young and rising naturalists, who will be able to view both sides of the question with impartiality.”

“.. the word ecology, coined by the German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel (initially as oecology) in 1866. derives from the Greek oikos, "referring originally to the family household and its daily operations and maintenance." The term ecology is therefore intended to refer to the study of the conditions of existence that pertain to, and the interactions between, all the entities that make up our larger, cosmic household here upon earth.”

“Shallow ecology is anthropocentric, or human-centred. It views humans as above or outside nature, as the source of all value, and ascribes only instrumental, or 'use', value to nature. Deep ecology does not separate humans - or anything else - from the natural environment. It does see the world not as a collection of isolated objects but as a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent. Deep ecology recognizes the intrinsic value of all human beings and views humans as just one particular strand in the web of life.”

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.”