Zac Goldsmith Quotes

Politicians usually get the blame for dragging their feet on environmental issues. And fair enough. Most of them do just that. But the blame isn't theirs alone. For politicians afraid of losing votes, a bristling media waiting to transform good green ideas into monsters is a colossal disincentive.

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

I've been a supporter of green initiatives for years. I've been paying more and more attention to it, you know, with three kids. I thought it was tragic when the Kyoto Protocol was killed by the U.S. It was sort of a call to action.

The challenge of pollution and global warming is no longer the science, or the rate of innovation, but the rate of implementation: We have the clean solutions; now let's bundle them and install them.

Even the government understands that the environmental challenge is so big that no single agency can handle it. It needs collaboration among all the stakeholders - companies, governments, NGOs and the public. Public accountability will be the ultimate driving force.

We had some major successes and we did so because the country embraced the spirit of Earth Day and embraced this concept that we have to have forward-looking, visionary environmental policy and energy policy in this country.

Environmentalism opposes reckless innovation and makes conservation the central order of business.

New York and Connecticut belong to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to cut carbon emissions, and New York City has been a leader in energy efficiency.

I travel all over the country speaking to young people, and I am always amazed at how engaged in environmental conservation they are.

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

I think the new generation is much more demanding about respect for the environment than we have ever imagined.

For the U.S., I think we should have a carbon tax, for environmental reasons.

My efforts in Congress are guided by the belief that environmental preservation and restoration are a critical part of the legacy we leave to future generations.

We can have technology, prosperity, nice homes and cars, but at the same time we must be conscious of what we are dumping into the water, the air and our food.

The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved.

For all of the hurtling towards climate change, there's also a lot more understanding of it than there was when we were kids. They don't call environmentalists tree huggers any more, so there's hope!

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.

We should tax what we burn, not what we earn.

Environmentalists get in the way. They often ask the right questions, but they're chasing the wrong answers - often hypothetical or uneconomic solutions.

Technology is vital. We have to have development in new technology if we're going to solve these environmental problems without throwing humanity back in poverty.

There are a lot of people doing good work, but we need to get the burning of fossil fuels off the highways and speedways of the world, so that we'll step up on global warming.

The environmental movement does not always have to be about stopping things. It can be about fixing problems.

The concept of 'green jobs' or a 'green economy' is often attacked as the work of the Grimm Brothers by those wedded to the grim science of free-market economics.

Greenhouse gas production, water usage and environmental issues more broadly are being mitigated by Canadian technological advances more and more each year.

We fought hard for green taxes and won.