Rachel Carson Quotes

Nature does not have the capacity to heal all the wounds that have been inflicted upon it by mankind.

Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.

We have killed off nature, that world entirely independent of us which was here before we arrived and which encircled and supported our human society

If you sort of treat the environment in sort of this mechanical, industrial way that there's a disconnect between man and the environment, it's very easy to treat people that way.

For 200 years we've been conquering nature. Now we're beating it to death.

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

Humanity is consuming the resources of the earth and life in an excessive and disordered way, forgetting the earth's own needs

The thing that gave me the most pain in life, psychologically, and it gave me tremendous pain psychologically, is man's disrespect for nature.

I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours.

We won't have a society if we destroy the environment.

We're not environmentally doing very good things to this planet, and we might not be around too long.

The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future.

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.

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

Our conservation laws are based on static ideas about nature—not landscapes that are rapidly changing because of something humans did.

We speak often of 'destroying the planet' when what we mean is destroying its habitability for humans.

I don't think the planet can survive people. It's not the other way around. I don't think the planet can survive.

If people destroy something replaceable made by mankind, they are called vandals; if they destroy something irreplaceable made by God, they are called developers.

We humans are the greatest of earth's parasites.

Relative to most of the energy and material flows on Earth, the machinations of humankind are puny. The planet's powers are much, much bigger than our own. But in a few sensitive places, we're making an impact on a planetary scale, and that impact is not a good one.

Like all animals, human beings have always taken what they want from nature. But we are the rogue species. We are unique in our ability to use resources on a scale and at a speed that our fellow species can't.

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.

Civilization... wrecks the planet from seafloor to stratosphere.

Mother Nature is not sweet.

It seems to me like Mother Nature's mercy and forgiveness have run dry, as we ceaselessly abuse her and take her for granted in order for us to continue our addiction to using fossil fuels. I've gotta say, I don't blame her. Not one bit.