All definitions of wilderness that exclude people seem to me to be false. African 'wilderness' areas are racist because indigenous people are being cleared out of them so white people can go on holiday there.
Jay GriffithsRead
The silencing of the rainforests is a double deforestation, not only of trees but a deforestation of the mind's music, medicine and knowledge.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the loss of biodiversity and cultural knowledge caused by deforestation and its impact on human consciousness.
Jay Griffiths' quote emphasizes that the destruction of rainforests represents a profound loss beyond just the physical trees; it signifies the erasure of the rich cultural and ecological knowledge that these environments embody. When rainforests are silenced, we lose not only their natural beauty and resources but also the wisdom and creativity that has been inspired by them throughout human history.
Themes
DeforestationRainforestsKnowledgeMindCulture
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a speech on environmental conservation to emphasize the importance of protecting both nature and culture.
More from Jay Griffiths
All quotes βSimilar quotes
Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.
Francis Of AssisiRead
We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.
Barry CommonerRead
Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?
Henry David ThoreauRead
Next time a sunrise steals your breath or a meadow of flowers leave you speechless, remain that way. Say nothing, and listen as Heaven whispers, "Do you like it? I did it just for you."
Max LucadoRead
...for most people in the [Jewish] Ghetto [of Warsaw] nature lived only in memory -- no parks, birds, or greenery existed in the Ghetto -- and they suffered the loss of nature like a phantom-limb pain, an amputation that scrambled the body's rhythms, starved the senses, and made basic ideas about the world impossible for children to fathom.
Diane AckermanRead
Every time you dive, you hope you'll see something new - some new species. Sometimes the ocean gives you a gift, sometimes it doesn't.
James CameronRead