Every person who has ever achieved anything has been knocked down many times. But all of them picked themselves up and kept going, and that is what I have always tried to do.
Wangari MaathaiRead
I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the dual responsibility of protecting the environment while also enhancing governance.
Wangari Maathai's quote highlights the interconnectedness of environmental preservation and effective governance. It asserts that protecting the environment cannot be a solitary effort; to achieve true sustainability, there needs to be a robust framework of governance that ensures accountability, transparency, and collaborative efforts amongst all stakeholders. This perspective underlines the need for systemic change alongside ecological consciousness.
In practice
In an environmental conference to emphasize the role of governance in sustainability efforts.
Every person who has ever achieved anything has been knocked down many times. But all of them picked themselves up and kept going, and that is what I have always tried to do.
It was easy to persecute me without people feeling ashamed. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a 'good African woman' and as a highly educated elitist who was trying to show innocent African women ways of doing things that were not acceptable to African men.
I know there is pain when sawmills close and people lose jobs, but we have to make a choice. We need water and we need these forests.
We’re constantly being bombarded by problems that we face and sometimes we can get completely overwhelmed. [But] we should always feel like a hummingbird. I may feel insignificant, but I don’t want to be like the other animals watching the planet go down the drain. I’ll be a hummingbird, I’ll do the best I can.
As long as there is no trust and confidence that there will be justice and fairness in resource distribution, political positioning will remain more important than service
It gradually became clear that the Green Belt Movement's work with communities to repair the degraded environment could not be done effectively without participants embracing a set of core spiritual values.
The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved.
You cannot achieve environmental security and human development without addressing the basic issues of health and nutrition.
Government-mandated and -subsidized ethanol from corn will go down in history as the "Iraq War" of environmental solutions: ill-considered, costly, and disastrous.
This fight against drilling in the Arctic Refuge is a fight about our principles. Its about standing up for our environment, our families and our future, and I wont give up this fight.
Hydraulic fracturing requires massive amounts of water. Disposing of the toxic wastewater, as well as accidental spills, can contaminate drinking water and harm human health.
When we speak of maintaining clean water supplies and a sustainable use of the environment, we should also stress the elimination of harmful chemicals in consumer products.
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