“If they survive, today's children will inherit a world that our fathers and grandfathers have ravaged, where the seas are acidic cesspools that the whales have fled, where rain forests are Indian memories never to return, and where human greed has plundered Mother Earth's innards and turned human genes into factories for profit. They will inherit a diminished planet where fresh water is increasingly rare, and where fresh air is a commodity... We live in a world that fears and hates its young. How else can one explain the bequest of such a foul, polluted, and hollow inheritance?” IfsWorldHumansChildrenTodayEarthYoungMotherHateFatherWaterMemoriesAirSeaPlanetsReturnFutureRainGreedProfitForestsIndianFactoriesGenesGrandfatherCommodityInheritanceHollowOur FatherFoulWhalesMother EarthFresh AirFresh WaterFathers And Grandfathers Author:Mumia Abu-Jamal
“The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity -- then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective.” IfsWorldWayLooksDifferentMotherOpportunityWaterNatureChallengesGreaterLandPlanetsPerspectiveShapesMountainResourcesRiversTreatsSacredSpeciesForestsVeinsDeitiesDifferent PerspectiveGroveTimberIrrigation Author:David Suzuki
“Though this new forest grew mightily, elsewhere the mighty jungles fell. Elsewhere the coastal rain forests that furred the body of the world were torn and riven. Elsewhere the last of the old growth the last of the world's own garment were ripped away. It was in this time, now, that the mother of us all was stripped naked and left to die in shame of her children, she who had been robed in glory like this, adorned like this. I bent my head upon the roots and wept, sorrowing for the trees.” WorldChildrenBodyLastsMotherDiesLeftGrowthTreeGrewGloryRainRootsShameForestsNakedElsewhereBentTornJungleGarmentsRippedCoastal Author:Sheri S. Tepper
“The forest is the first cathedral. I felt that from the time I was a child. I credit my mother with that. I used to think it came from her Native-American side. Whichever it was, she instinctively connected with nature, and taught me that.” ThinkingFirstsChildrenUsedMotherFeltSidesTaughtConnectedCreditForestsNativeNative AmericanCathedrals Author:Alice Walker