John Burnside Quotes

But now sustainability is such a political category that it's getting more and more difficult to think about it in a serious way. Sustainability has become an ornament.

We learned that economic growth and environmental protection can and should go hand in hand.

It would be a mistake to believe that environmental protection and economic growth are mutually exclusive.

After all, sustainability means running the global environment - Earth Inc. - like a corporation: with depreciation, amortization and maintenance accounts. In other words, keeping the asset whole, rather than undermining your natural capital.

We want to use the environment to shift the way our society works.

I think today we recognize that economic activity needs to search for ways to protect the environment.

The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at least not try to defy them.

So-called 'sustainable development'... is meaningless drivel.

We owe it to each other - and to our children and grandchildren - to leave our planet in a better state than when we found it.

Earth Day should encourage us to reflect on what we are doing to make our planet a more sustainable and livable place.

If we each take responsibility in shifting our own behavior, we can trigger the type of change that is necessary to achieve sustainability for our race or this planet. We change our planet, our environment, our humanity every day, every year, every decade, and every millennia.

What we've proven is that you can protect the environment, use it wisely and grow the economy and that there is no conflict between the two.

If there is a future, it will be Green.

We need to become good citizens in the global village, instead of competing. What are we competing for - to drive more cars, eat more steaks? That will destroy the world.

We must preserve our planet and grow our economy simultaneously. We cannot become more prosperous without the living systems upon which our prosperity depends.

We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough?

The notion of 'reduce and refine' is one I've pursued. I truly believe that by making things less complex, by finding innovative ways to make sustainability affordable, we can advance the notion that it is possible.

In the long term the economy and the environment are the same thing. If it is unenvironmental it is uneconomical. That is a rule of nature.

… work [jobs] and the environment should not be played off against each other.

For too long, the world has been focused on short-term growth and development at the expense of our long-term survival as we have depleted our natural resources at historically reckless rates.

I agree on the need for environmental sustainability. It is no good raising gross national income while at the same time destroying natural assets.

I feel that our planet is in peril and that creating a sustainable planet for my children and my children's children is the most important thing I can do in this lifetime.

Conservation of our resources is the fundamental question before this nation, and that our first and greatest task is to set our house in order and begin to live within our means.

We are now heading down a centuries-long path toward increasing the productivity of our natural capital - the resource systems upon which we depend to live - instead of our human capital.

A sustainable world means working together to create prosperity for all.