Mary Oliver Quotes

I don't think there's any way we can save the polar bears.

I flipped through a book on harp seals in the late 1970s and saw images of them swimming in emerald green pools of water surrounded by huge sheets of ice. Right then I was hooked, and I knew this was a story I wanted to do.

I haven't been to Tasmania. I haven't been to the South Pole, and I haven't been to the North Pole. I want to see the polar bear migration before there are no polar bears. I want to see Glacier National Park before the glacier melts.

Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.

The bearded iceberg

I like the idea of going to see the ice caps and the polar bears, because who knows how long they are going to be around for?

Some studies suggest that the Arctic Ocean may be ice-free by the end of the century.

I also have an idea for a book on biodiversity, and why and how we should be conserving it.

In the landscape of extinction, precision is next to godliness.

Each year, I await with dread the federal government's catalog of endangered and threatened species in the Hawaiian Islands, where I was raised and where I live.

Endangered species are our friends.

Living wild species are like a library of books still unread. Our heedless destruction of them is akin to burning the library without ever having read its books.

I've always liked trees. And then, growing up, I took an interest in ecology, hedges being destroyed, the landscape being turned into prairies.

Within 10 years it will be impossible to travel to the North Pole by dog team. There will be too much open water.

I went for a walk in the Arctic Circle without map or compass. Fortunately, I was only lost for hours, not days.

We don't need to clear the 4 to 6 percent of the Earth's surface remaining in tropical rain forests, with most of the animal and plant species living there.

The historical circumstance of interest is that the tropical rain forests have persisted over broad parts of the continents since their origins as stronghold of the flowering plants 150 million years ago.

The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.

It's hard to appreciate the importance of the rainforest because it seems so far away, but it's vital to the survival of the planet as we know it.

I do think we're an endangered species. But that we do have a plan to save the rainforest.

No more wolves, wilderness or welfare.

If the spotted owl can't adjust ... then screw it.

Extinction is forever!

The area inside the Arctic Circle contains 8 percent of the earth’s surface and 15 percent of its land…. The Arctic produces 40 percent of the world’s palladium, 20 percent of its diamonds, 15 percent of its platinum, 11 percent of its cobalt, 10 percent of its nickel, 9 percent of its tungsten, and 8 percent of its zinc.

God thawed the Arctic so we can drill there.