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Ecological Quotes

Browse 287 quotes about Ecological.

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Ecological Quotes

“Cost-effectiveness is the screw that turns the wheel of efficiency. But there is a considerable cost to pursuing cost-effectiveness. Here is the logarithm of progress: The more you pursue being saved from the drudgery of going through your days, the ordinariness of being around, the venality of physical limitation or vulnerability, the more is taken from the physical world to provide you that salvation and the more remote you will be from what grants you your security. That is an ecological and spiritual fact.”

SpiritualDyingEcological
Book:Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul
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“Industrial processes follow a clear, linear, hierarchical logic that is fairly easy to put into words, probably because words follow a similar logic: First this, then that; put this in here, and then out comes that. But the relationship between cows and chickens on this [Polyface] farm...takes the form of a loop rather than a line, and that makes it hard to know where to start, or how to distinguish between causes and effects, subjects and objects. . . Joel would say this is precisely the point, and precisely the distinction between a biological and an industrial system. "In an ecological system like this everything's connected to everything else, so you can't change one thing without changing ten other things. . .This farm is more like an organism than a machine, and like any organism it has proper scale.”

FoodEcologicalScaleIndustrial FarmingBiological FarmingClosed Loop
Book:The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
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“The dragon is withered, His bones are now crumbled; His armour is shivered, His splendour is humbled! Though sword shall be rusted, And throne and crown perish With strength that men trusted And wealth that they cherish, Here grass is still growing, And leaves are yet swinging, The white water flowing, And elves are yet singing Come! Tra-la-la-lally! Come back to the valley! The stars are far brighter Than gems without measure, The moon is far whiter Than silver in treasure: The fire is more shining On hearth in the gloaming Than gold won by mining, So why go a-roaming? O! Tra-la-la-lally Come back to the Valley.”

FantasyClassicAnarchistEcologicalAnticapitalist
Author:Tolkien J. R. R.
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“I have always been a big advocate of tap water-not because I think it harmless but because the idea of purchasing water extracted from some remote watershed and then hauled halfway round the world bothers me. Drinking bottled water relieves people of their concern about ecological threats to the river they live by or to the basins of groundwater they live over. It's the same kind of thinking that leads some to the complacent conclusion that if things on earth get bad enough, well, we'll just blast off to a space station somewhere else.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldWellsKindIdeasEnoughBigsEarthWaterSpaceConcernRiversThreatDrinkingEnvironmentalRoundsConclusionBotherOver ItLive ByStationsSomewhere ElseHalfwayBlastEcologicalComplacentDrinking WaterPurchasingWatershedsBottled WaterTap WaterGroundwater
Author:Sandra Steingraber
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“The money economy thus leaves a large ecological footprint, defined as the amount of land and resources required to meet a typical consumer's needs. For example, with only about 4% of the world's population, the United States, the largest money economy, consumes in excess of one-quarter of the world's energy and materials and generates in excess of 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.”

WorldNeedsStatesEnergyUnitedUnited StatesEconomyLandExampleMaterialsAmountPercentResourcesPopulationDefinedConsumersGasQuartersExcessConsumerismTypicalEmissionsEcologicalFootprintOverconsumptionGreenhousesGreenhouse GasesEcological Footprints
Author:Stuart L. Hart
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“Modern society will find no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyle. In many parts of the world society is given to instant gratification and consumerism while remaining indifferent to the damage which these attitudes cause. Simplicity, moderation and discipline, as well as a spirit of sacrifice, must become part of everyday life, lest all suffer the negative consequences of the careless habits of a few.”

WorldWellsLooksProblemSpiritSufferingGivenCausesAttitudeSacrificeModernSeriousHabitDisciplineSolutionsConsequenceNegativeEverydaySimplicityLifestyleInstantDamageIndifferentConsumerismEveryday LifeModerationGratificationCarelessEcologicalOverconsumptionModern SocietyInstant GratificationNegative ConsequencesSerious Look
Author:Pope John Paul II
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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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“Dispossessed peasants slash-and-burn their way into the rain forests of Latin America, hungry nomads turn their herds out into fragile African rangeland, reducing it to desert, and small farmers in India and the Philippines cultivate steep slopes, exposing them to the erosive powers of rain. Perhaps half the world's billion-plus absolute poor are caught in a downward spiral of ecological and economic impoverishment. In desperation, they knowingly abuse the land, salvaging the present by savaging the future.”

WorldWayAmericaTurnsPoorHalfEconomicLandRainAbuseIndiaAbsolutesCaughtBillionsHungryForestsDesertPlusLatinFarmersFragileDesperationReducingPeasantsHerdsLatin AmericaEcologicalExposingSpiralsPhilippinesSlopesSteepNomadDownward Spiral
Author:Alan Thein Durning
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“Our politics and science have never mastered the fact that people need more than to understand their obligation to one another and to the earth; they need also the feeling of such obligation, and the feeling can come only within the patterns of familiarity. A nation of urban nomads, such as we have become, may simply be unable to be enough disturbed by its destruction of the ecological health of the land, because the people's dependence on the land, though it has been expounded to them over and over again in general terms, is not immediate to their feelings.”

PeopleNeedsMayHas BeensEnoughFactsFeelingsEarthNationsTermLandDestructionPatternsObligationUrbanDependenceFamiliarityDisturbedEcologicalNomad
Author:Wendell Berry
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“What the new fertilizer technology has accomplished for the farmer is clear: more crop can be produced on less acreage than before. Since the cost of fertilizer, relative to the resultant gain in crop sales, is lower than that of any other economic input, and since the Land Bank pays the farmer for acreage not in crops, the new technology pays him well. The cost-in environmental degradation-is borne by his neighbors in town who find their water polluted. The new technology is an economic success-but only because it is an ecological failure.”

WellsWaterPayTechnologyClearEconomicLandCostGainsTownsEnvironmentalNeighborAccomplishedFarmersRelativeCropsDegradationEcologicalNew TechnologyInputFertilizerEnvironmental DegradationEconomic Success
Author:Barry Commoner
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“Only within the 20th Century has biological thought been focused on ecology, or the relation of the living creature to its environment. Awareness of ecological relationships is - or should be - the basis of modern conservation programs, for it is useless to attempt to preserve a living species unless the kind of land or water it requires is also preserved. So delicately interwoven are the relationships that when we disturb one thread of the community fabric we alter it all - perhaps almost imperceptibly, perhaps so drastically that destruction follows.”

ShouldKindWaterCommunityEnvironmentModernLandCenturyAwarenessCreaturesProgramDestructionBasesRelationSpeciesFocusedUselessPreservesThreadFabricEcologyConservation20th CenturyEcologicalLiving Creatures
Author:Rachel Carson
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“The current economic crisis...has numerous causes and sends a powerful message about the need for a profound revision of the model of global economic development. It's an acute symptom that is added to other more grave and already well-known ones, such as the continued imbalance between wealth and poverty, the scandal of hunger, the ecological emergency and the problem of unemployment, which has now become general. In this context a strategic re-launching of agriculture appears decisive.”

NeedsWellsProblemCausesWealthPowerfulKnownPovertyEconomicLandDevelopmentMessagesModelsCrisisProfoundHungerCurrentsGravesAgricultureUnemploymentWell KnownSymptomsScandalEmergenciesStrategicEcologicalRevisionEconomic DevelopmentImbalanceLaunchingEconomic CrisisWealth And Poverty
Author:Pope Benedict XVI
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“Canada regards herself as responsible to all mankind for the peculiar ecological balance that now exists so precariously in the water, ice and land areas of the Arctic archipelago. We do not doubt for a moment that the rest of the world would find us at fault, and hold us liable, should we fail to ensure adequate protection of that environment from pollution or artificial deterioration.”

WorldShouldMomentsWaterDoubtEnvironmentFailingLandMankindBalanceAreasResponsibleRegardFaultsProtectionIceCanadaPeculiarArtificialPollutionAdequateEcologicalLiableArcticDeteriorationEcological Balance
Author:Pierre Trudeau
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“The white race is the cancer of human history; it is the white race and it alone — its ideologies and inventions — which eradicates autonomous civilizations wherever it spreads, which has upset the ecological balance of the planet, which now threatens the very existence of life itself.”

HumansWhiteRaceExistencePlanetsBalanceCivilizationCancerSpreadIdeologyUpsetHuman HistoryEcologicalAutonomousWhite RaceExistence Of LifeEcological Balance
Author:Susan Sontag
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“We need – more urgently than architectural utopias, ingenious traffic disposal systems, or ecological programmes – to comprehend the nature of citizenship, to make serious imaginative assessment of that special relationship between the self and the city; its unique plasticity, its privacy and freedom.”

NeedsSelfCitiesSpecialSeriousUniquePrivacyTrafficCitizenshipImaginativeUtopiaEcologicalAssessmentProgrammesIngeniousSpecial RelationshipPlasticityPrivacy And Freedom
Book:Soft City: Picador Classic
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“The ecological impact of book manufacture and traditional book marketing - I think that should really be considered. We have this industry in which we cut down trees to make the paper that we then use enormous amounts of electricity to turn into books that weigh a great deal and are then shipped enormous distances to point-of-sale retail.”

ThinkingShouldBookUseTurnsDealsCuttingTreeIndustryAmountPaperImpactDistanceMarketingEnormousTraditionalElectricityEcologicalRetail
Author:William Gibson
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“The new paradigm may be called a holistic world view, seeing the world as an integrated whole rather than a dissociated collection of parts. It may also be called an ecological view, if the term "ecological" is used in a much broader and deeper sense than usual. Deep ecological awareness recognizes the fundamental interdependence of all phenomena and the fact that, as individuals and societies we are all embedded in (and ultimately dependent on) the cyclical process of nature.”

IfsWorldMayWholeFactsUsedIndividualProcessTermViewsSeeingAwarenessFundamentalsDeeperCollectionsDependentUsualParadigmIntegratedEcologicalEmbeddedHolisticInterdependenceWorld ViewSeeing The WorldIndividuals And Society
Book:The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision
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“My main professional interest during the 1970s has been in the dramatic change of concepts and ideas that has occurred in physics during the first three decades of the century, and that is still being elaborated in our current theories of matter. The new concepts in physics have brought about a profound change in our world view; from the mechanistic conception of Descartes and Newton to a holistic and ecological view, a view which I have found to be similar to the views of mystics of all ages and traditions.”

WorldFirstsHas BeensStillsIdeasMatterAgeThreeFoundInterestViewsCenturyTheoryConceptsTraditionProfoundCurrentsDecadesPhysicsDramaticOur WorldConceptionNewtonEcologicalHolisticWorld ViewDramatic Change
Author:Fritjof Capra
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“Nor do piecemeal steps however well intended, even partially resolve problems that have reached a universal, global and catastrophic character. If anything, partial 'solutions' serve merely as cosmetics to conceal the deep seated nature of the ecological crisis. They thereby deflect public attention and theoretical insight from an adequate understanding of the depth and scope of the necessary changes.”

IfsWellsCharacterProblemUnderstandingAttentionStepsSolutionsUniversalCrisisDepthInsightResolveAdequateScopeTheoreticalEcologicalCosmeticsDeep SeaEcological CrisisNecessary Change
Author:Murray Bookchin
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“There are a lot of products still to be discovered in the world and experimentation, for example with seafood and fish. There are thousands of products that we're not eating right now that maybe will be cultivated in a good agriculture situation, a sustainable, ecological way. Maybe there will be textures or flavors we hadn't even thought of. In the Amazon there are 400 fruits that are not cultivated right now. They're just incredible fruits. Textures, tastes that we don't know right now.”

KnowsWorldWayStillsSituationExampleFoodProductsTasteRight NowEatingFruitIncrediblesFishesAgricultureFlavorTextureEcologicalAmazonExperimentationSeafoodEating Right
Author:Ferran Adria
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“The Occupy Wall Street collective is confused about what it wants but it wants it now! Some of the loonier demands from its independent thinkers: Striking all existing public and private debt from the books across the "entire planet"; elimination of all international borders; free college education; a guaranteed "living wage" for all regardless of employment; an end to free trade; trillions in additional spending for infrastructure and ecological restoration; and ending the fossil fuel economy.”

WantBookEndsEconomyStreetsCollegePlanetsWallDemandIndependentTradeInternationalDebtSpendingEmploymentBordersConfusedFuelCollectivesThinkerFossilsInfrastructureRestorationFossil FuelEcologicalEliminationFree TradeCollege EducationLiving WageOccupy Wall StreetFuel Economy
Author:Mike Rosen
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“The industrial processes in use today were developed at a time when no one had to consider what the environmental impact was. Who cared? But making ecological concerns matter to a company's bottom line will help it do the research and development that will reinvent everything we buy.”

MatterHelpingUseTodayProcessLinesCompanyEnvironmentDevelopmentResearchConcernImpactEnvironmentalBottomBottom LineEcologicalResearch And DevelopmentEnvironmental Impact
Author:Daniel Goleman
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“The reductionist measure of yield is to agriculture systems, what GDP is to economic systems. It is time to move from measuring yield of commodities, to health and well-being of ecosystems and communities. Industrial agriculture has its roots in war. Ecological agriculture allows us to make peace with the earth, soil and the society.”

WellsWarEarthMovingCommunityEconomicRootsWell BeingSoilYieldAgricultureCommodityEcologicalEcosystemsMaking PeaceMeasuringEconomic SystemsGdp
Author:Vandana Shiva
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