Terry Tempest Williams Quotes

This is an incredibly creative time. It is a difficult time. It is a disparaging time. A time of cultural and global transitions based on the realization that the Earth cannot support nonsustainable practices anymore.

A resource-poor country like Japan can only rely on people's endeavor and knowledge. I would like to continue my effort to provide help to younger people.

I feel very passionately that we need to take care of the planet and everything on it. Whether it's saving the Amazon or just being kind to those around you, we need to take care of each other and Mother Earth.

I really have a deep sense of caring about the air that we breathe and the water that we drink. I want to be able to say that I was trying to protect that. And I also care deeply about children. My children, all children. And I care deeply about giving back.

You have to understand: the narrative that people have about business and capitalism is that they are fundamentally selfish, greedy, and exploitative. Of course, I don't agree with that narrative.

We have got to change our ethics and our financial system and our whole way of understanding the world. It has to be a world in which people live rather than die; a sustainable world. It could be great.

I’ll stop demonizing business when business stops putting their profits before the country and starts putting their workers before their greed.

We need to create a culture of care-taking. In which no one and nowhere is thrown away. In which the inherent value of all people and every ecosystem is foundational.

Capitalism is a wonderful economic engine, but it assigns little value to long-term projects or societal problems.

You know capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at large, it's really let us down.

Ted Geisel was trying to make a statement about awareness and personal responsibility. He was very clear about that. But the ideas and themes in 'The Lorax' go beyond a love of trees. It's also a story about the dangers of greed and the power of redemption. That's what makes it a timeless tale.

It seems very clear to me that we, in the West, cannot afford to continue assuming propriety over the world's resources in a careless, greedy way without paying for it - not only with the lives of our loved ones, but also with our souls.

Taking on corporate greed is an environmental concern.

I had just gotten to the point when I could have bought any car I wanted to in America. I even looked at a Hummer. But one day I woke up and realized, how can I talk the talk without walking the walk? If you can feel good about not contributing to global change, then all the power to you, but I couldn't.

When you care about something, that's when you want to save it. I want to bring that to storytelling - to make saving the world sexy.

Yes, green business is good business. But it's not just about making money. It's about being responsible.

I get these students who come in and say, I want to help people. I say, people get plenty of help. Why don't you help the planet?

We're still expecting capitalism to solve problems: 'Maybe if we sell enough oil, we can give some profits to an environmental agency!' Capitalism isn't a moral system.

Businesses must reconnect company success with social progress. Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success. It is not on the margin of what companies do but at the center. We believe that it can give rise to the next major transformation of business thinking.

Sustainability has become an ornament.

Capitalism, as practiced, is a financially profitable, non-sustainable aberration in human development.

The ecological crisis is a moral issue.

[Professional accountants ] should be encouraging companies to enhance their green credentials by switching to renewables, and to respect core labor standards and human rights.

To receive a 10-point ride is a blessing in itself, but to have it honored by giving to those who could use a little support to accomplish the things they want to do in life is a bigger blessing. The school is something I believe hugely in. They provide a special place for kids to understand things that many people avoid or never learn to deal with their whole lives.

Business is the only mechanism on the planet today powerful enough to produce the changes necessary to reverse global environments and social degradation.