We pull out of the ground death, we burn death in our power plants, and then we act shocked when we get death in the form of oil spills and global warming.
Interpretation
The quote critiques humanity's disregard for environmental consequences while exploiting natural resources.
Van Jones highlights a paradox in human behavior: we extract and utilize natural resources, particularly fossil fuels, leading to harmful environmental impacts, yet we express surprise and dismay at the resulting issues such as oil spills and global warming. This reflects a deeper disconnect between our actions and their repercussions on the planet, urging us to take responsibility for the consequences of our choices regarding energy consumption and environmental stewardship.
In practice
In a discussion about climate change during a conference, this quote can effectively convey the irony of our environmental impact.
The surest path to safe streets and peaceful communities is not more police and prisons, but ecologically sounds economic development. And that same path can lift us to a new, green economy - one with the power to lift people out of poverty while respecting and repairing the environment.
Government-mandated and -subsidized ethanol from corn will go down in history as the "Iraq War" of environmental solutions: ill-considered, costly, and disastrous.
We have the chance to build this new energy economy in ways that reflect our deepest values of inclusion, diversity, and equal opportunity for everyone.
Will the new environmental leaders fight for eco-equity in this new "green economy" they are birthing?
Our point of view is, lets not be so elitist that we can't honor good, hard, dignified, ennobling work: people working with their hands, building things, putting up solar panels, weatherizing homes, working on organic agriculture, building wind farms. We don't have robots in society, so somebody has to do that work. Lets make sure that the people who can use that work get a chance to do it. I see that as a first step toward bigger and better things.
When you take the people who most need work and connect them with the work that most needs doing, you save. You save that young person’s life, you save a whole bunch of money, and you save the soul of this country when you invest and give people a chance, give people hope, give people opportunity.
Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn, and to sing at dusk, was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.
The most important thing is to preserve the world we live in. Unless people understand and learn about our world, habitats, and animals, they won't understand that if we don't protect those habitats, we'll eventually destroy ourselves.
It [the Earth] was breathtakingly beautiful, like something out of a fairy tale. There is no way to describe the joy of seeing the Earth. It is blue, and more beautiful than any other planet.
We soon get through with nature. She excites an expectation which she cannot satisfy.
It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.
The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in.
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