Donella Meadows Quotes

All I want to do is to present the abundance of life on Earth.

The further human society drifts away from nature, the less we understand interdependence.

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.

Environmentalism is a way of seeing our place within the biosphere.

Nature is simply the environment on earth in which man finds himself, and to treat it as a separate being in the image of man is sheer nonsense.

The environment, what surrounds you, is so alive and delightful and complex.

The earth is a fickle place for all life, not least the human project of civilization.

Earth is a flower and it's pollinating.

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

Now, more than ever, we need nature as a balancing agent.

The most important principle of environment is that you are not the only element.

I take a biocentric point of view. I look at things from the point of view of the Earth and the laws of ecology. As opposed to the anthropocentric point of view, where everything revolves around humanity.

Any living thing that hopes to live on the earth must fit into the ecosphere or perish.

It's nice to think about having everything natural and similar to pre-Columbian times.... In fact, man himself has long been part of that environment and there is no way to separate him from that environment.

Biodiversity underpins life on earth. And if we don't look after this biodiversity, if we don't protect it, if we don't actually harness it in the right way, we are threatening our own livelihoods on this planet.

One reason that birds matter - ought to matter - is that they are our last, best connection to a natural world that is otherwise receding. They're the most vivid and widespread representatives of the Earth as it was before people arrived on it.

The planet is beautiful.

The planet's forests are essential for life.

The human family has invaluable friends and irreplaceable allies in the plant and animal worlds. We cannot continue to tug at the web of life without tearing a hole in the very fabric of our earthly existence - and eventually falling through that hole ourselves.

Environment is of supreme importance. It is greater than will power.

The environment is everything that makes up our surroundings and affects our ability to live on the earth - the air we breathe, the water that covers most of the earth's surface, the plants and animals around us, the overall condition of our planet, and much more.

I never lose an opportunity to speak about my obsession: humankind and the environment.

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

You should issue demerits for tree cutting or the destruction of humus.

Natures' curriculum cannot be changed.