David Attenborough Quotes

I think there is a general unrest or curiosity about what a human future is going to be like, and whether the way we're living is even sustainable.

The only people who have the long view are some scientists and some science fiction writers.

How much will you give for the lives of your childrens children, which is yourself? How much are people willing to give up for air, earth, water, animals, and the coming generations? I think the answer to that is pretty clear.

With the observable fact that scientific knowledge makes our lives better when applied with concern for human welfare and environmental protection, there is no question that science and technology can produce abundance so that no one has to go without.

We have all this very clever technology and all these abilities to manipulate the world in all these ways, yet we are faced with the very real question of whether we can be sustainable on this planet - whether or not, in fact, we can endure.

Science and technology are the keys to both our longevity and our demise. Our entire existence on this planet is a double-edged sword.

As a kid, I didn't need to be convinced the future promised peril and oppression, so when I started thinking up the middle-grade science fiction novel that became 'The Boy at the End of the World,' it seemed only natural to build the story around a dark vision of the future. In my book, civilization has nearly destroyed itself.

We are too quickly losing important landscapes in this country to development - and I worry that if we do not act to protect them now, future generations will grow up in a profoundly different world.

We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.

The truth is, natural organisms have managed to do everything we want to do without guzzling fossil fuels, polluting the planet or mortgaging the future.

I believe that the end of things man-made cannot be very far away - must be near at hand.

Man is complex—he makes deserts bloom and lakes die.

We are at risk of turning over to the next generation a worse life than we have had.

Conservation must become before recreation.

The environment is more than just nature. The environment is peoples needs.

Land is not something you inherit from your parents. It is something you borrow from your children.

20 centuries of progress have brought the average citizen a vote, a national anthem, a Ford, a bank account and a high opinion of himself but not the capacity to live in high density without befouling and denuding his environment.

One of the most serious challenges to human destiny in the last third of this century will be the growth of population …. When future generations evaluate the record of. our time, one of the most important factors in their judgment will be the way in which we respond to population growth

You only have to ask yourself, "What would happen if the entire population of India and China had two-car garages and were living at the technological and the economic standard that the American middle class is today?" The planet would become very rapidly uninhabitable.

We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow.

The oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it..

Humanity stands ... before a great problem of finding new raw materials and new sources of energy that shall never become exhausted. In the meantime we must not waste what we have, but must leave as much as possible for coming generations.

With science, technology and globalization, man is changing the world faster than his evolution can keep up with the new dangers.

The need to incorporate longer term time scales into our societal choices is very real—and right in the lap of our generation.

Rather than rewarding today’s voters with benefits financed by future generations, as Congress typically does, solving the climate problem will require costly actions now to protect those who will follow us.