Barry Commoner Quotes

Raising awareness on the most pressing environmental issues of our time is more important than ever.

Why are ecologists and environmentalists so feared and hated? This is because in part what they have to say is new to the general public, and the new is always alarming.

Unless we keep this planet healthy, everything else is for naught.

I don't believe in environmentalism as the solution to anything. What I believe is that environmentalism illuminates the things that need to be done to solve all of the problems together.

I wish my artwork could persuade millions of people to join a global conversation about sustainability.

With today's mass media obsession, it's good to be able to raise awareness about our environment.

We can have technology, prosperity, nice homes and cars, but at the same time we must be conscious of what we are dumping into the water, the air and our food.

That's the big mistake the environmental movement made - 'We'll scare the hell out of you, and you'll become an activist'.

Since the early 1990s, I had been very worried about the state of the environment, and by the end of that decade, I realized I needed to do something about it.

I'm into environmental and ecological issues, so maybe that is an avenue to go down.

I don't want to pretend that I am a little David Suzuki, because I am not. I'm really different. I have different issues. I'm more interested in the social aspect of environmental issues.

I'm a latecomer to the environmental issue, which for years seemed to me like an excuse for more government regulation. But I can see that in rich societies, voters are paying less attention to economic issues and more to issues of the spirit, including the environment.

My main issue is sustainability of the Earth, and protection of those animals and people who dwell here.

Wouldn't it help Americans more, in the long run, if we were forced to accept some responsibility for the environmental wreckage we prefer to assume is totally out of our control?

Journey with me to a true commitment to our environment. Journey with me to the serenity of leaving to our children a planet in equilibrium.

Franklin Roosevelt was very concerned about environmental issues.

I think an old style of addressing environmental problems is ebbing, but the rise of the so-called conservative, political movement in this country is not a trend towards the future but a reaction to this very broad shift that we are undergoing.

There is no question that photography has played a major role in the environmental movement.

Address these environmental issues and you will address every issue known to man. And we keep dabbling in things that aren't really that important in the long term.

Everyone is slowly catching on to this one - and I know everyone says this - but we need to make a little more effort with the environment. Everyone says they turn off their lights, but do they really?

Fundamentally, if you look at where the environmental issues are coming from, it's all because of humans and our impact on the environment, so while it's true that one individual is not going to sufficiently fix the environment, it is a necessary thing.

On almost every environmental issue I care about, in fact, I've been wrong at one point or another. I used to think that climate change was no big deal, that most environmental problems were massive exaggerations, that oil reserves were effectively unlimited, and more.

Environmental concern is a little like dieting or paying off credit-card debt - an episodically terrific idea that burns brightly and then seems to fade when we realize there's a reason we need to diet or pay down our debt. The reason is that it's really, really hard, and too many of us in too many spheres of life choose the easy over the hard.

Environmentalism isn't a discipline or specialty. It's a way of seeing our place in the world. And we need everybody to see the world that way. Don't think 'In order to make a difference I have to become an environmentalist.'

I believe the American people care a lot about the environment.