Ecosystem Role Quotes

Of all the everyday plants of the earth, grass is the least pretentious and the most important to mankind. It clothes the earth is an unmistakable way. Directly or indirectly it provides the bulk of man's food, his meat, his bread, every scrap of his cereal diet. Without grass we would all starve, we and all our animals. And what a dismal place this world would be!

I have a huge belief in the importance of bees, not just for their honey, which is a healing and delicious food, but the necessity of bee colonies that are vital to the health of the planet.

From the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to serve the appetite of the tapeworm.

Animals were not made for us, or our use. They have their own use, which is just being who they are.

We truly have an ancient part of the brain that was about survival when we were prey but we seem to have gone past prey. We eat everything and nothing eats us.

Vegetables are organized bodies that grow on the dry areas of the globe and within its waters. Their function is to combine immediately the four elements and to serve as food for animals.

I have never yet happened upon a trace of evidence... to show that any one animal was ever made for another as much as it was made for itself.

What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.

By obtaining a sense of its place in the unfolding drama of life, set in an ecological theatre, so we can understand why it has become one of the leading players.

The message is not so much that the worms will inherit the Earth, but that all things play a role in nature, even the lowly worm.

Ants are the leading removers of dead creatures on the land. And the rest of life is substantially dependent upon them.

If you don't like bacteria, you're on the wrong planet.

No living thing is insignificant.

If you think the ocean isn't important, imagine Earth without it. Mars comes to mind. No ocean, no life support system.

The plow is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man's inventions; but long before he existed the land was in fact regularly plowed, and still continues to be thus plowed by earthworms. It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.

Vegetation is really controlling what happens...whereas the emphasis in the climate models has always been on the atmosphere.

I take my part in the food chain very seriously.

Earthworms are far more valuable than people.