If, in our haste to 'progress,' the economics of ecology are disregarded by citizens and policy makers alike, the result will be an ugly America. We cannot afford an America where expedience tramples upon esthetics and development decisions are made with an eye only on the present.
Interpretation
Disregarding ecological economics for immediate progress can lead to environmental degradation.
This quote by Stewart Udall emphasizes the importance of considering ecological economics in the decision-making processes of citizens and policymakers. It warns that prioritizing short-term gains over long-term environmental aesthetics and health can result in a deteriorating society and landscape, ultimately affecting the quality of life in America.
In practice
In a lecture about urban development, this quote can highlight the importance of sustainable practices.
America today stands poised on a pinnacle of wealth and power, yet we live in a land of vanishing beauty, of increasing ugliness, of shrinking open space, and of an over-all environment that is diminished daily by pollution and noise and blight.
Each generation has its own rendezvous with the land, for despite our fee titles and claims of ownership, we are all brief tenants on this planet. By choice, or by default, we will carve out a land legacy for our heirs.
The sweet small clumsy feet of april came into the ragged meadow of my soul.
What have they done to the earth? What have they done to our fair sister? Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn And tied her with fences and dragged her down
No living creature, not even man, has achieved, in the centre of his sphere, what the bee has achieved in her own: and were some one from another world to descend and ask of the earth the most perfect creation of the logic of life, we should needs have to offer the humble comb of honey.
When the ancestors of the cheetah first began pursuing the ancestors of the gazelle, neither of them could run as fast as they can today.
Let me enjoy the earth no less because the all-enacting light that fashioned forth its loveliness had other aims than my delight.
I believe climate change is real and that we can save our planet while creating millions of good-paying clean energy jobs.
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