John Burnside Quotes

Really, the ocean itself - that's really the thing that we're up against, the most destructive environment on the planet.

Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed; and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.

I saw the long line of the vacant shore, The sea-weed and the shells upon the sand, And the brown rocks left bare on every hand, As if the ebbing tide would flow no more.

Pacific Islands are among those that contribute least to global warming, yet suffer most.

The sea is not rising. It hasn't risen in 50 years.

Rock pools, so-named because they have been hammered out of rocks at the ocean's edge, are one of Sydney's defining characteristics, along with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, though not as well known.

The north coast of Brittany is eaten into bays from which the sea retreats to considerable distances, and is fringed with reefs and islands. It is a favourite resort of Parisians throughout its stretch, from Dinard to Plestin.

When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn't just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms.

We tend to describe climate change in terms that are abstract—a one degree rise in temperature, an increase in green house gasses—but when waves wash away a village, that’s concrete and very emotional.

Oceans no longer matter when it comes to making us safe.

My house could be under water in this century.

He is the rock on the beach of our national ocean against which the breakers dash and roar.

The oceans have shrunk, until today both Europe and Asia border the United States almost as do Canada and Mexico.

What was once a 100-year flood will happen every 3 to 20 years. And truly catastrophic storms will do damage unimaginable today.

Racism is a problem, economic inequality is a problem, not enough rock n' roll on the radio is a problem. But all those problems will become insignificant when the oceans rise in a way that threatens organised human activity.

We have a house near East Hampton, and of all the beaches I've been to, I think there is something so beautiful about Long Island beaches. I love them in the fall and winter.

On climate change, we are told that there will be a civilization-ending development in the form of massive sea level rise as soon as 2050. Anybody plan to be here in 2050? I think a few of us do, myself included.

The seas are rising, and millions of people are going to be affected by that - and already are. We have to make sure there's enough food, water, and air.

If the sea level rises 6 inches, that's a big deal... we can't mitigate that; we can't stop it. We've just got to stop building vast houses on seashores and go back a little bit.

The impact of our warming planet will likely lead to even stricter zoning and building codes to account for the rising sea levels visible in places like South Beach - even on days without a cloud in sky.

We must maintain strong building codes, strengthen flood insurance programs, and forcefully acknowledge the reality that rising sea temperatures caused by made-man climate change are negatively impacting our way of life. This should be a bipartisan task that finds support with bipartisan solutions.

There, the grand lines of mountain and sea are admirable, and apart from the exotic vegetation that is here, Monte Carlo is certainly the most beautiful spot of the entire coast: the motifs there are more complete, more picturelike, and consequently easier to execute.

The construction of permanent sea walls can be taken up only in places where there is sea erosion due to heavy anthropogenic pressures. The locations for such non-living barriers should be determined on the basis of a carefully conducted erosion-vulnerability analysis.

I grew up in Nova Scotia, and my uncle lived close to the Bay of Fundy. We would walk across the mud flats out to an island, and then you'd climb a cliff and be in the forest. And if the water came in, the basin would fill up with, like, a 30-foot tide. It was phenomenal.

Floods will become more serious and frequent in the Indo-Gangetic plains. Drought induced food and water scarcity will become more acute. South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the small islands will be the worst victims.