S. William Becker Quotes

The Chinese have figured out that they have a giant environmental problem. Folks in Beijing, some days, literally can't breathe. Over a million Chinese die prematurely every year because of air pollution.

Smog is affecting larger parts of China, and environmental pollution has become a major problem, which is nature's red-light warning against the model of inefficient and blind development.

There are real and growing dangers to our simple and most precious possessions: the air we breathe, the water we bring, and the land which sustains us.... If we do not act, the world of the year 2000 will be much less able to sustain life than it is now.

L.a. 's air pollution has turned an environmental issue into everybody's issue.

China may achieve its goal of reducing the carbon intensity of its economy (the ratio of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of output) by 45 percent below its 2005 level by 2020. But the country is growing so fast that its coal consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are expected to continue to increase. China is expected to add the equivalent of a new 500-megawatt coal-fired electric plant every 10 days for the next decade...

There are air-quality issues that cross state lines. There are water-quality issues, obviously, that cross state lines.

All we can hope for is that the thing is going to slowly and imperceptibly shift. All I can say is that 50 years ago there were no such thing as environmental policies.

To deal with local pollution, China has put on the agenda the capping of coal, which has long been a sensitive issue.

I think the government has to reposition environment on top of their national and international priorities.

Environmental pollution is an incurable disease. It can only be prevented.

Global warming is a crisis greater than WWI and WWII put together. Government leadership is lacking, so companies must play their part.

Every American deserves to breathe clean air.

Pollution knows no boundaries; it moves across borders.

Ozone Man

For us to try and step in and say we have got to do all these global things to prevent the earth from getting any warmer in my opinion is absolute nonsense. It’s not going to happen

There is only one possible route of action, Greenhouse gases have to be radically reduced and it has to happen worldwide. Until now, the US has kept its eyes shut to this emergency. Americans make up a mere 4 percent of the population, but are responsible for close to a quarter of emissions.

The current challenge facing the environmental authorities is how to properly deal with the environmental problems caused by economic development.

We have not done those things that are necessary to lower emissions because those things conflict with deregulated capitalism. We are stuck, because those things that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe … are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has a strangle-hold over our economy, our political process, and most of our major media outlets.

As we do our work in D.C., we should do our work in collaboration and in partnership, in cohesion with states so that we can work on environmental issues from Superfund to air quality to water quality across the full spectrum in things that we do in partnership with those folks.

It should be noted that the EPA's banning of methanol is categorically absurd from the point of view of environmental protection.

I hope to see an integrated solution created to deal with both the local pollution problem and the global climate change problem.

Comprehensive climate legislation must be passed so that we can ensure a world where this and future generations can experience the bliss of breathing clean crisp air, while fishing in the Adirondacks... and being able to eat the fish afterwards.

For the record, I am sticking with my claim that the simultaneous degradation of air quality, water quality, water supply, food safety, soil quality, and other environment-related variables is the main challenge to China's continued development.

The issue of the environment as seen by Pope Francis is not a matter of purely scientific or, indeed, theological debate: it involves economic and political views on how the world's poor can be brought out of poverty while protecting the environment.

In the rich world, the environmental situation has improved dramatically. In the United States, the most important environmental indicator, particulate air pollution, has been cut by more than half since 1955, rivers and coastal waters have dramatically improved, and forests are increasing.