By adopting the control strategy, the nation's environmental program has created a built-in antagonism between environmental quality and economic growth.
Barry CommonerRead
The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the interconnectedness of all elements in the ecosystem.
Barry Commoner's quote emphasizes the complexity and interdependence of ecological systems, suggesting that every element within an ecosystem—a species, a plant, or even human beings—affects one another. This understanding is foundational for ecological science and advocates for a holistic view of environmental conservation, urging us to recognize our role and responsibility in maintaining these delicate relationships.
In practice
During a presentation on environmental protection, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of conservation efforts.
By adopting the control strategy, the nation's environmental program has created a built-in antagonism between environmental quality and economic growth.
Environmental quality was drastically improved while economic activity grew by the simple expedient of removing lead from gasoline - which prevented it from entering the environment.
We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.
What is new is that environmentalism intensely illuminates the need to confront the corporate domain at its most powerful and guarded point - the exclusive right to govern the systems of production.
Despite the dazzling successes of modern technology and the unprecedented power of modern military systems, they suffer from a common and catastrophic fault. While providing us with a bountiful supply of food, with great industrial plants, with high-speed transportation, and with military weapons of unprecedented power, they threaten our very survival.
Sooner or later, _x000D_ wittingly or unwittingly, _x000D_ we must pay _x000D_ for every intrusion _x000D_ on the natural environment.
Every spring I hear the thrush singing in the glowing woods he is only passing through. His voice is deep, then he lifts it until it seems to fall from the sky. I am thrilled. I am grateful. Then, by the end of morning, he's gone, nothing but silence out of the tree where he rested for a night. And this I find acceptable. Not enough is a poor life. But too much is, well, too much. Imagine Verdi or Mahler every day, all day. It would exhaust anyone.
Planet Earth is our shared island, let us join forces to protect it
Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west.
Animal agriculture makes a 40% greater contribution to global warming than all transportation in the world combined; it is the number one cause of climate change.
To reenchant nature is not merely to gain a new perspective for its integrity and well-being; it is to throw open the doors to a deeper level of existence.
What we lose in our great human exodus from the land is a rooted sense, as deep and intangible as religious faith, of why we need to hold on to the wild and beautiful places that once surrounded us.
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