That shoreline where the island of knowing meets the unfathomable sea of our own being is the landscape of myth.
William Irwin ThompsonRead
Like a shadow that does not permit us to jump over it, but moves with us to maintain its proper distance, pollution is nature's answer to culture. When we have learned to recycle pollution into potent information, we will have passed over completely into the new cultural ecology.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that pollution is an inseparable part of our cultural existence, and advancements in our understanding can transform it into beneficial knowledge.
William Irwin Thompson highlights the relationship between pollution and culture, suggesting that pollution shadows humanity and cannot be escaped. However, he posits that if we learn to recycle and transform pollution into valuable information, we can evolve into a new phase of cultural ecology where our relationship with the environment is more symbiotic.
Themes
PollutionCultureEcologyInformationRecycling
In practice
Example use cases
During an environmental conference, this quote could be used to stress the importance of transforming pollution into information for sustainable practices.
More from William Irwin Thompson
All quotes →For the first time in human evolution, the individual life is long enough, and the cultural transformation swift enough, that the individual mind is now a constituent player in the global transformation of human culture.
William Irwin ThompsonRead
If humans died in a healthy culture, they would not lock out the earth in metal coffins and carve their names on stone monuments, but would instead place the naked body in the earth and plant a tree above the silent heart.
William Irwin ThompsonRead
Similar quotes
There are no accidents, only nature throwing her weight around. Even the bomb merely releases energy that nature has put there. Nuclear war would be just a spark in the grandeur of space. Nor can radiation alter nature: she will absorb it all. After the bomb, nature will pick up the cards we have spilled, shuffle them, and begin her game again.
Camille PagliaRead
If we can't afford to take good care of the land that feeds us, we're in an insurmountable mess.
Wendell BerryRead
And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.
Wangari MaathaiRead
If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that--warm things, kind things, sweet things--help and comfort and laughter--and sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all.
Frances Hodgson BurnettRead
This much is certain: We have the power to damage the sea, but no sure way to heal the harm.
Sylvia EarleRead