Best 257 quotes in «ecology quotes» category

Und was hilft es dem Veganer, wenn er dem Kalb seine Milch lässt, aber dazu beiträgt, dass sein auf Palmöl basierender Brotaufstrich den Lebensraum von Orang-Utans und Tigern zerstört? Was hilft es dem Vegetarier, wenn er das Huhn vor der Schlachtung bewahrt, der Transport seiner Cashewkerne, Avocados und Kososnussmilch aber Erdölkatastrophen fördert, die ganze Vogelschwärme töten?

Unfortunately, researches are only peripherally interested in the thousands of species discovered so far and given unpronounceable Latin names. Countless more species are waiting in vain to be discovered.

Unlike the clonal longevity of asexual organisms, sexually reproduced plants and animals usually have briefer, individual life cycles. In short, the enormous diversity afforded by the evolutionary invention of sexual reproduction came with a price—death of the individual.

Unsportsmanlike predator-killing is always rationalized as defence of property—usually someone else’s property. This excuse is getting too thin to pass muster among thinking conservationists.

Using information about animal behavior to justify social or political ideology is wrong . . . People need to be able to make decisions about their lives without having to worry about keeping up with the bonobos.

Viewing ecology through the lens of individual life histories or the life cycles of species makes it easy to grasp the Hindu conception of life as drama. Every creature and plant has a separate path of sustenance and survival on the way to their final dance with Shiva.

Water is sacred to all Human Beings. If you do not have water, you cannot have life. I always remember to honor and pour the water because it is traditional.

Water is always working, reorganizing the land.

We are as gods and might as well get good at it.

... we are called by God and by life itself to celebrate, relish, and stand in awe of Earth's beauty, unfolding complexity, and life-generating goodness.

We are part of the natural world and evolved within its embrace. This understanding is perhaps as ancient as humanity itself. Giving children the gift of knowing nature as their home, of feeling themselves as part of the web of life is an invaluable life resource for exploring their inner self and for developing their ability to act in this world and on its behalf. It is perhaps our culture’s break with nature, the viewing of our planet as nothing more than a collection of things to be exploited and discarded, that has brought us to this time of crisis. And perhaps more than anything else, this time of turmoil and transformation calls for a rediscovery of humanity’s place within the earth community. This revisioning of our relationship with life on earth, rooted in indigenous wisdom and shaped for contemporary times, is perhaps the cornerstone of the human initiation and evolution being called for today. For children to discover their place within the natural world, to grow their connection with it, has everything to do with their ability to remain grounded in turbulent times, everything to do with their being able to grow their vision and play their part in this upcoming transition.

We can and must respond creatively to the triple crisis and simultaneously overcome dehumanization, economic inequality, and, ecological catastrophe.

We can only predict the future ecological changes, by emergence of the past into the present.

We can all avoid travel that is unnecessary; we do not need to travel around the world when the source of all joy and all beauty is right within us.

...we do not own these woods. They own us.

We find it repugnant when people exploit or abuse others for personal gain - we call them cheats, tyrants, scoundrels, or villains; we describe them as despicable, evil, vile, wicked, or manipulative. (Aldo) Leopold said we should feel the same way about people who exploit or abuse land.

We forest officers, who acquiesced in the extinguishment of the bear, knew a local rancher who had plowed up a dagger engraved with the name of one of Coronado´s captains. We spoke harshly of the Spaniards, who, in their zeal for gold and converts, had needlessly extinguished the native Indians. It did not occur to us that we, too, were the captains of an invasion too sure of its righteousness.

We have forgotten our natural ability to live together, including with our fellow nonhumans, because we have lost the sacred collective touchstone that anchors us to the fundamental truth that our lives emerge, grow, and thrive from the same great forces and processes that drive the evolution of the universe.

We have made our mark on the world, but we have really done nothing that the trees and creeping plants, ice and erosion, cannot remove in a fairly short time.

We haven't got a spare planet. If we had it, we would sell it long time ago.

We have only begun to see how deep and infinite cosmic creativity really is. The human brain doesn’t have the market cornered on this playful creative process. Just look through a telescope, through a microscope, or even just around you at all the other creatures that fill your world; look into the eyes of your nonhuman friends. We share more than our planet; we share deep and primordial creative connections that pervade the universe.

We need myths that will help us to identify with all our fellow-beings, not simply with those who belong to our ethnic, national or ideological tribe. We need myths that help us to realize the importance of compassion, which is not always regarded as sufficiently productive or efficient in our pragmatic, rational world. We need myths that help us to create a spiritual attitude, to see beyond our immediate requirements, and enable us to experience a transcendent value that challenges our solipsistic selfishness. We need myths that help us to venerate the earth as sacred once again, instead of merely using it as a 'resource.' This is crucial, because unless there is some kind of spiritual revolution that is able to keep abreast of our technological genius, we will not save our planet.

...we need to remind ourselves that natural systems are much more finely tuned than we think, and if we like the way they currently work, then we should try very, very hard to not screw with them.

We study the past history, with the conscience of the present environmental changes; we can only predict the future ecological changes, by emergence of the past into the present.

We travel together, passengers on a little space ship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil; all committed for our safety to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and, I will say, the love we give our fragile craft. We cannot maintain it half fortunate, half miserable, half confident, half despairing, half slave—to the ancient enemies of man—half free in a liberation of resources undreamed of until this day. No craft, no crew can travel safely with such vast contradictions. On their resolution depends the survival of us all.

What about human beings? said the animals. Do you think we need human beings? Why not? said the Twins. And as quick as they could the right-handed Twin created women, and the left-handed Twin created men. They don't look too bright, said the animals. We hope they won't be a problem. Don't worry, said the Twins, you guys are going to get along just fine.

What use will money and wealth be to those who possess them when the rivers and land are poisoned, the seas devoid of life and the air polluted beyond tolerance?

When we chop nature into bits in an attempt to understand it, we lose sight of the relationships among those bits. But ecological healing is all about the healing of relationships.

Wir kaufen biologische Lebensmittel nicht, weil sie besser schmecken. Das ist oft der Fall, aber bei Weitem nicht immer. Und wir kaufen sie auch nicht, weil sie gesünder für uns sind, denn der gesundheitliche Zustand unserer Körper ist meist ohnehin desolat und lässt sich leicht ignorieren. Wir kaufen sie einerseits, um ein gewisses Maß an Tierleid zu vermeiden, und andererseits, um unseren Planeten zu erhalten. Denn die konventionelle Landwirtschaft verschlechtert und vergiftet unsere Böden sukzessive, sodass die Fruchtbarkeit stetig abnimmt und die Düngermenge stetig steigen muss. Mit dieser Überdüngung und dazu noch den Pflanzenschutzmitteln rotten wir alles andere Leben auf dem Feld aus, zerstören die Biodiversität und fördern das Bienensterben; wir lassen diese Stoffe in unser Grundwasser und unsere Flüsse sickern und gefährden damit weitere Lebensräume.

Wolves directly affect the entire ecosystem, not just moose populations, their main prey, because less moose equals more tree growth

You certainly don't fuck about trying to ride manta rays.

Your planet's immune system is trying to get rid of you.

All I ask is that we compare human consciousness with spirochete ecology.

Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.

Economists don't seem to have noticed that the economy sits entirely within the ecology.

We have all grown up, one might say, thinking of nature as an adorable, helpless bunny that some people want to protect and others, motivated by the will to power that is the unmentionable force behind so much of contemporary culture, want to stomp into a bloody pulp just to show that they can. Both sides are mistaken, for what they have misidentified as a bunny is one paw of a sleep- ing grizzly bear who, if roused, is quite capable of tearing both sides limb from limb and feasting on their carcasses. The bear, it must be remembered, is bigger than we are, and stronger. We forget this at our desperate peril.

WE have to take care of this world. WE can't wait any longer. WE need to stop using fossil fuels. Get behind the green new deal. WE are running out of time. Stop being distracted by reality TV shows in the White House. Climate Change is what Reality looks like. The mud slides are coming. The rain is coming. The timing is all off. The rain could have saved California. Now it is coming to bury the things we've done. This is what you and I are leaving our kids. Wake up. Love one another. Save one another. The Earth is talking to us. LOVE. - more at the neil young archives website

We humans have a questionable track record in our dealings with the environment. Recent studies show that complete restoration of Florida’s Everglades could take approximately 30 years and 7.8 billion dollars. There’s a lot of work to be done–but the damage is not irreversible. Together, through conservation and public awareness, we may be able to correct many of these unfortunate trends. Today, it is not enough to just appreciate nature–we have to actively work to protect it.

We must know the facts and be guided by them...nature does not forgive fools nor does she spare them the penalties of their folly

We never were separate from nature and never will be, but the dominant culture on earth has long imagined itself to be apart from nature and destined one day to transcend it. We have lived in a mythology of separation.

Wer glaubt, es sei gesund, sein Stück Kuchen von einer bunten Papierserviette zu essen, der irrt. Rohstoff- und Energieverbrauch, Transport, Lagerung, Entsorgung, Chemikalieneinsatz und Kosten stehen in keinem Verhältnis zu dem gewonnenen Nutzen.

We study the past ecological history, with the conscience of the present ecological conditions. The key to predict future aquatic ecosystem changes.

Whatever our sacred gift happens to be, we honor the deeper patterns of the universe when we share it.

Whatever has turned human beings into “aliens” in nature are social changes that have made many human beings “aliens” in their own social world: the domination of the young by the old, of women by men, and of men by men. Today, as for many centuries in the past, there are still oppressive human beings who literally own society and others who are owned by it. Until society can be reclaimed by an undivided humanity that will use its collective wisdom, cultural achievements, technological innovations, scientific knowledge, and innate creativity for its own benefit and for that of the natural world, all ecological problems will have their roots in social problems.

Whatever you do to the animals, you do to yourself.

What matters in the story of our human relationships is not whether they lead to happily ever after but who and what they make of us. All relationships are our teachers, and this is especially so in a time of societal unraveling.

What need does the earth have of us?

What, then, is the soul of community? It is a desire to be connected with something greater than the egos of other people and the projects in which we might engage with them. Fundamentally, a successful human community is the unfolding of a spiritual dynamic. It cannot be contrived or made to happen. Rather, it erupts from our desire for the depths, and that desire is certain to constellate the shadow in ourselves and the other.

Whitehaven Beach brought me back to my days when a trip to the library was an adventure. The author lives on the beach, so it i natural for kids to turn their beach home into an imaginary rocket ship as they travel the world so save the beaches from marauders. Their young imaginations are fired up unlike adults whose live experience has deprived them of this kind of adventure. Oh, to be a kid again!

Who is speaking for the waters of the Earth?