Top 676 Quotes & Sayings by Famous Environmentalists

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

There is an urgent need to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, dramatically reduce wasted energy, and significantly shift our power supplies from oil, coal, and natural gas to wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy sources.

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

Everybody is a hypocrite. You can't live on this planet without being a hypocrite.

Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.

The climate crisis is both the easiest and the hardest issue we have ever faced. The easiest because we know what we must do. We must stop the emissions of greenhouse gases. The hardest because our current economics are still totally dependent on burning fossil fuels, and thereby destroying ecosystems in order to create everlasting economic growth.

It is not ignorance but knowledge which is the mother of wonder.

Beauty is power; a smile is its sword.

Biodiversity can't be maintained by protecting a few species in a zoo, or by preserving greenbelts or national parks. To function properly, nature needs more room than that. It can maintain itself, however, without human expense, without zookeepers, park rangers, foresters or gene banks. All it needs is to be left alone.

We are at the edge of an abyss and we're close to being irrevocably lost.

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.

Globalisation has powered economic growth in developing countries such as China. Global logistics, low domestic production costs, and strong consumer demand have let the country develop strong export-based manufacturing, making the country the workshop of the world.

Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

We are concerned that, in a few years time, this place of discovery, with its wealth of human fossils, the like of which can be found nowhere else in the world, could be completely destroyed.

One way or another, the choice will be made by our generation, but it will affect life on earth for all generations to come

Coral reefs represent some of the world's most spectacular beauty spots, but they are also the foundation of marine life: without them many of the sea's most exquisite species will not survive.

Peace, non-violence, human rights and the environment - if only everybody saw these as the seamless whole that they are

The value of biodiversity is that it makes our ecosystems more resilient, which is a prerequisite for stable societies; its wanton destruction is akin to setting fire to our lifeboat.

When I left my home within society to live amongst the Grizzly's I went there so that I could sacrifice myself to something which was even more chaotic than the drinking and drug abuse. When I made the wholehearted attempt such as it was to 'save' the Grizzly's I wanted to actually save myself. The animals only later on became my life as well as my directive principle, not because they desired a human to protect them, rather because I wanted to do for them what is humanly possible when faced with such possibilities.

Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we'll soon be in trouble.

I was the child at school in second-hand or handmade clothes and, as I grew older, I craved material wealth, a big house and designer clothes.

We need to save the Arctic not because of the polar bears, and not because it is the most beautiful place in the world, but because our very survival depends upon it.

Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental.

We fight, even against insurmountable odds, because sometimes we win.

The poor monkey, quietly seated on the ground, seemed to be in sore trouble at this display of anger.

On the recollection of so many and great favours and blessings, I now, with a high sense of gratitude, presume to offer up my sincere thanks to the Almighty, the Creator and Preserver.

A forest of these trees is a spectacle too much for one man to see.

Around 17 to 20 years, I became, myself, a poacher. And I wanted to do it, because - I believed - to continue my studies. I wanted to go to university, but my father was poor, my uncle even. So, I did it. And for three to four years, I went to university. For three times, I applied to biomedical science, to be a doctor. I didn't succeed.

You cannot seriously address the destruction of wilderness without addressing the society that is destroying it.

The fact is, we cannot drill our way to oil independence.

Those who die for their country are martyrs and those who live for their country are greater martyrs.

A garden is a complex of aesthetic and plastic intentions; and the plant is, to a landscape artist, not only a plant - rare, unusual, ordinary or doomed to disappearance - but it is also a color, a shape, a volume or an arabesque in itself.

Without knowing it, we utilize hundreds of products each day that owe their origin to wild animals and plants. Indeed our welfare is intimately tied up with the welfare of wildlife. Well may conservationists proclaim that by saving the lives of wild species, we may be saving our own.

I began observing, making paintings of my surroundings, taking a vow of silence, listening, composing music, writing, and making time for formal education. Then I started telling stories.

The solution of present-day problems lie in the re-establishment of a harmonious relationship between man and nature. To keep this relationship permanent we will have to digest the definition of real development: development is synonymous with culture. When we sublimate nature in a way that we achieve peace, happiness, prosperity and, ultimately, fulfilment along with satisfying our basic needs, we march towards culture.

Sustainability is growth based on forms and processes of development that do not undermine the integrity of the environment on which they depend

Simple, easy actions can protect the health of our water resources and help save drinking water supplies. There is not one individual who cannot help to make a difference to the health of the environment

At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rain forest. Now I realize I am fighting for humanity

Within 10 years it will be impossible to travel to the North Pole by dog team. There will be too much open water.

O, how glorious would it be to set my heel upon the Pole and turn myself 360 degrees in a second!

Don't give up, cause despair sucks

If we destroy their environments and communities, we will lose the answers they have to solving our problems, and to the protection of our common futures.

I think women who are willing to 'have a go' are much more widely accepted now than ever before. I think if the opportunities aren't obvious, then women who wish to run their own business will find them or make them happen for themselves.

Greening school design provides an extraordinarily cost-effective way to enhance student learning, reduce health and operational costs and, ultimately, increase school quality and competitiveness.

It may not be irrelevant to note that even very modest forms of life, like earthworms, dung beetles and fiddler crabs, have no trouble identifying the real problems they must deal with if they are to survive.

By gathering seed from trees which are close to our homes and close to our hearts, helping them to germinate and grow, and then planting them back into their original landscapes, we can all make a living link between this millennium and the next, a natural bridge from the past to the future.

Follow your dreams and use your natural-born talents and skills to make this a better world for tomorrow.

Building capacities for the young generation is going to make a better generation and a better future tomorrow for Africa.

The scientist is a lover of truth for the very love of truth itself, wherever it may lead.

It's quite amazing to me, as I walk around a supermarket or a health food shop, to observe the number of Fairtrade choices: not just staples such as coffee, tea, fresh fruits and rice, but cocoa and chocolate, herbs and spices, honey, ice cream, and jams.

NATO isn't going to be concerned about fishing.

The problem with climate change is that it's quite complicated for the ordinary person to understand.

Global warming is no longer a philosophical threat, no longer a future threat, no longer a threat at all. It's our reality.

Everyone else has some interest in economic growth and development, which often happens at the expense of the environment and community. We need the other side to join this to check and balance.

I think that I was slightly naive. I thought that if I showed people the beauty of the Arctic and the beauty of the polar bears that they would care so much that they would stand up and try to make a change.

If you publish something in traditional media, it's one-way. With social media, we get all this info coming back from those who read our posts.

In China we need to do our own part to try to combat global climate change.

Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion, chasing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another.

I was obliged, at last, to come to the conclusion that the contemplation of nature alone is not sufficient to fill the human heart and mind.

We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules.