Walter J. Hickel Quotes

To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.

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

I think the greatest challenge in environmentalism and the most rewarding challenge is trying to figure out how humans can meet their needs while protecting the environment.

The transformation of environment has become the purpose of human life; life seems real only insofar as it deals with things.

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

In many developing countries environmental problems are relegated to the periphery because they do not appear to be as urgent as other issues … We cannot survive without clean drinking water, food and pure air. Environmental concerns are not a luxury in Africa.

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.

Man's war against nature is a war against himself.

They go together, a strong environment and a strong economy. In Florida the environment is the economy.

Conservation’s grand challenge is to save nature in a world that will soon have 9 billion hungry, thirsty, energy-using people.

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.

Like I said, I'm more worried long term about the environmental issues then the use of arms.

Unless we keep this planet healthy, everything else is for naught.

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.

The images of Earth's delicate biosphere, contrasting with the sterile moonscape where the astronauts left their footsteps, have become iconic for environmentalists: these may indeed be the Apollo programme's most enduring legacy.

Address these environmental issues and you will address every issue known to man. And we keep dabbling in things that aren't really that important in the long term.

Raising awareness on the most pressing environmental issues of our time is more important than ever.

I'm very concerned for the future of the earth and its amazing creatures. We've got to be careful and make sure we don't foul our own nest.

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.

This whole idea that we address environmental issues by not doing stuff just doesn't work.

Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land.

All our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people and harder - and ultimately impossible to solve - with ever more people.

Nature will take precedence over the needs of the modern man.

Not all is doom and gloom. We are beginning to understand the natural world and are gaining a reverence for life - all life.

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