David Longstreth Quotes

I realize the answer is not to create wilderness and walk away.

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

I'd like more of the world go back to being wild.

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

I am an environmentalist, but I'm not a wacko environmentalist. I believe that mankind and nature can live side-by-side for the mutual benefit of both.

People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.

People habitat has to take priority over bird habitat.

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

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

The mistake is to think that clever technology can solve everything, but it can't solve our relationship with nature, which is where I think it's gone wrong in that we have somehow abandoned our proper connection with nature.

The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.

I really love nature. I grew up in the country. But one of the things about nature is that it is beautiful but it's also very dangerous.

For millions of years, this world has been a great gift to nearly everything living on it, a planet whose atmosphere, temperature, air, water, seasons, and weather were precisely calibrated to allow us - the big us, including forests and oceans, species large and small - to flourish.

If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don't need an enemy.

We have to understand in value what the services of nature are so that we can understand that degrading them is an irreplaceable resource that no amount of money or human ingenuity can replace.

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.

Species conversation is beyond a doubt an issue that truly matters to the American public.

Genetic design is something we can use to fight the lack of sustainability we humans are forcing on the earth's environment.

We owe it to each other - and to our children and grandchildren - to leave our planet in a better state than when we found it.

I love all of the ecosystems - mountains, deserts, rainforests. They're beautiful, and nature has so many different flavors to it.

Nature conserves, prefers novelty.

There is something basic about protecting land by taking it off the market. People should be able to enjoy where they live while at the same time protect the plants and animals around them.

Simply put, I believe we should not seek the lowest common denominator when it comes to wilderness and saddle a wilderness designation with exceptions, exclusions, and exemptions.

Nature doesn't need people - people need nature; nature would survive the extinction of the human being and go on just fine, but human culture, human beings, cannot survive without nature.

A proper respect for nature means that you can't pollute the air, poison the rivers and chop down the forests indiscriminately without suffering greatly.