Barry Commoner Quotes

The order and harmony of the Western world, its most famous achievement, and a laboratory in which structures of a complexity as yet unknown are being fashioned, demand the elimination of a prodigious mass of noxious by-products which now contaminate the globe. The first thing we see as we travel round the world is our own filth, thrown into the face of mankind.

No-one wants polluted air, water or land, denuded forests or extinct animal species. But the error most people make is to trust the legislature to prevent these tragedies. What they don’t realize is how big a role the legislature has played historically in causing environmental destruction.

Many of the environmental rules not only fail to protect the natural environment, they actually increase the damage.

I look at it this way... For centuries now, man has done everything he can to destroy, defile, and interfere with nature: clear-cutting forests, strip-mining mountains, poisoning the atmosphere, over-fishing the oceans, polluting the rivers and lakes, destroying wetlands and aquifers... so when nature strikes back, and smacks him on the head and kicks him in the nuts, I enjoy that. I have absolutely no sympathy for human beings whatsoever. None. And no matter what kind of problem humans are facing, whether it's natural or man-made, I always hope it gets worse.

Eventually we'll realize that if we destroy the ecosystem, we destroy ourselves.

To be modern is to destroy nature.

Because normal human activity is worse for nature than the greatest nuclear accident in history.

The transformation of forests into deserts, fertile earth into sunbaked concrete, and running rivers into silted floodwaters show that only through care for the environment can the livelihoods of those most dependent on it be sustained. We cannot allow economic and environmental concerns to be played off against each other.

If we go on using the Earth uncaringly and without replenishing it, then we are just greedy consumers.

Nature is truly wonderful. Only man is truly foul.

If we are really serious about protecting the environment, the discharge pipes and stacks of industry would all plug directly into their intake side, and costs would not be externalized to a voiceless environment.

I'm truly sorry man's dominion has broken Nature's social union.

Today the great gift of God's Creation is exposed to serious dangers and lifestyles which can degrade it. Environmental pollution is making particularly unsustainable the lives of the poor of the world ... we must pledge ourselves to take care of creation and to share its resources in solidarity.

We will have no jobs if we have no planet.

The natural environment sustains the life of all beings universally.

Reclaim our environment from those who would destroy it with their predatory economic behavior.

What a strange creature man is that he fouls his own nest.

In our enthusiasm to dominate nature and to produce more material good - goods - we have transformed means into ends.

In the last few decades entire new categories of waste have come to plague and menace the American scene. Pollution is growing at a rapid rate. Pollution destroys beauty and menaces health. It cuts down on efficiency, reduces property values and raises taxes. Almost all these wastes and pollutions are the result of activities carried on for the benefit of man. A prime national goal must be an environment that is pleasing to the senses and healthy to live in. Our Government is already doing much in this field. We have made significant progress. But more must be done.

I don’t know if it is all (man’s fault) but the majority is, for the most part, it is man who continuously slaps down nature.

We have an economy that tells us it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can't print life to bail out a planet.

It is not man the ecological crisis threatens to destroy but the quality of human life.

Pollution should never be the price of prosperity.

Once-ler! You're making such smogulous smoke - my poor swomee swans, why they can't sing a note! No one can sing who has smog in his throat.

Environmental pollution is a blight on people's quality of life and a trouble that weighs on their hearts.