Places that have become agricultural deserts, trashed by giant corporations, could be reforested, drawing carbon dioxide from the air on a vast scale. The ecosystems of land and sea could recover, not just in pockets but across great tracts of the planet.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the potential for reforestation to restore ecosystems and combat climate change.
George Monbiot highlights the transformative power of reforestation in areas devastated by corporate exploitation. By acknowledging the urgent need for ecological restoration, he believes that large-scale efforts can lead to significant recovery of ecosystems on land and in the sea, ultimately benefiting the planet and reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
In practice
During a community meeting about environmental restoration, this quote could inspire volunteers.
The notions that nature exists to serve us; that its value consists of the instrumental benefits we can extract; that this value can be measured in cash terms; and that what can't be measured does not matter, have proved lethal to the rest of life on Earth.
I believe that anyone who wants to stand in a national election should receive a course of psychotherapy. Completing the course should be a qualification for office. This wouldn't change the behaviour of psychopaths, but it might prevent some people who exercise power from imposing their own deep wounds on others.
I became an environmentalist because I love the living world, but I spend much of my life thinking about electricity, industrial processes and civil engineering.
Never underestimate the power of intrinsic values. They inspire every struggle for a better world.
Why is it so easy to save the banks - but so hard to save the biosphere?
It is a campaign not for abundance but for austerity. It is a campaign not for more freedom but for less. Strangest of all, it is a campaign not just against other people, but against ourselves.
We are in grave danger of losing forever not just millions of years of evolution on earth, but the eons of change that have produced man and his natural environment.
Basically, I think 21st century conservation is moving toward preserving ecosystems by dealing with the needs of people.
Zoo animals are ambassadors for their cousins in the wild.
It amazes me, and I know the wind will surely someday blow it all away It amazes me, and I'm so very grateful that You made the world this way
People talk about doom-laden scenarios happening in the future: they are happening in Africa now. You can see it perfectly clearly. Periodic famines are due to too many people living on land that can't sustain them.
The book of nature which we have to read is written by the finger of God.
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