“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
“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
“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
“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
“It is really important to solve the problem of rational utilization and distribution of wate supplies. I dare say, the shortage of fresh water is the major ecological problem of this moment.” ImportantMomentsProblemWaterMajorsEnvironmentalDareSolveRationalDistributionSuppliesEcologicalShortageFresh WaterUtilization Author:Mikhail Gorbachev
“The river, for example, is the living symbol of all the life it sustains or nourishes - fish, aquatic insects, water ouzels, otter, fisher, deer, elk, bear, and all other animals, including man, who are dependent on it or who enjoy it for its sight, its sound, or its life. The river as plaintiff speaks for the ecological unit of life that is part of it.” MenSpeakEnjoySoundWaterAnimalExampleBearsRiversSightEnvironmentalIncludingFishesSymbolsDependentUnitsInsectsEcologicalDeerOttersElk Author:William O. Douglas