Hold up a mirror and ask yourself what you are capable of doing, and what you really care about. Then take the initiative - don't wait for someone else to ask you to act.
Sylvia EarleRead
There is a terribly terrestrial mindset about what we need to do to take care of the planet-as if the ocean somehow doesn't matter or is so big, so vast that it can take care of itself, or that there is nothing that we could possibly do that we could harm the ocean...We are learning otherwise.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We often underestimate the ocean's vulnerability and importance, believing it can sustain itself without our help.
Sylvia Earle emphasizes that many people adopt a limited perspective regarding environmental care, particularly concerning the ocean. This mindset leads to the misconception that the ocean is so expansive that it is immune to harm, allowing society to overlook its crucial role in our ecosystem. However, recent understanding reveals that human actions can significantly impact the health of the ocean, and we must recognize our responsibility in its preservation.
Themes
OceanEnvironmentConservationNatureResponsibility
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about climate change, one might say, 'As Sylvia Earle pointed out, we must not underestimate the ocean's health because it impacts our planet as a whole.'
More from Sylvia Earle
All quotes →I'm haunted by the thought of what Ray Anderson calls 'tomorrow's child,' asking why we didn't do something on our watch to save sharks and bluefin tuna and squids and coral reefs and the living ocean while there still was time. Well, now is that time.
Sylvia EarleRead
Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea.
Sylvia EarleRead
No water, no life. No blue, no green.
Sylvia EarleRead
I have come up at the end of a dive, and the boat was not where I left it. I had to take care of a buddy who did panic. But I was confident the boat would come back.
Sylvia EarleRead
Nothing has prepared sharks, squid, krill and other sea creatures for industrial-scale extraction that destroys entire ecosystems while targeting a few species.
Sylvia EarleRead
Similar quotes
We Americans, in most states at least, have not yet experienced a bear-less, eagle-less, cat- less, wolf-less woods. Germany strove for maximum yields of both timber and game and got neither.
Aldo LeopoldRead
I lean and loaf at my ease... observing a spear of summer grass.
Walt WhitmanRead
In the world in which we live, it is almost a necessity to be able to regain one's strength of body and spirit, especially for those who live in the city, where the conditions of life, often feverish, leave little room for silence, reflection and relaxed contact with nature.
Pope Benedict XviRead
The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
Rabindranath TagoreRead
It is the preservation of the species, not of individuals, which appears to be the design of Deity throughout the whole of nature.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
To the lover of pure wildness Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.
John MuirRead