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The environmental crisis arises from a fundamental fault: our systems of production - in industry, agriculture, energy and transportation - essential as they are, make people sick and die.

Barry Commoner

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Barry Commoner
Age: 95 †
Born: 1917
Born: May 28
Died: 2012
Died: September 30
Academic
Biologist
Ecologist
Environmentalist
Military Officer
Non-Fiction Writer
Politician
University Teacher
Brooklyn
New York
Sick
Fundamental
Industry
Arise
Transportation
Dies
Fundamentals
Arises
Energy
Environmental
Agriculture
Make
Faults
Fault
People
Essential
Systems
Essentials
Production
Crisis
Productions

More quotes by Barry Commoner

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The environmental crisis is a global problem, and only global action will resolve it.
Barry Commoner
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Environmental quality was drastically improved while economic activity grew by the simple expedient of removing lead from gasoline - which prevented it from entering the environment.
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Because the global ecosystem is a connected whole, in which nothing can be gained or lost and which is not subject to over-all improvement, anything extracted from it by human effort must be replaced. Payment of this price cannot be avoided it can only be delayed. The present environmental crisis is a warning that we have delayed nearly too long.
Barry Commoner
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The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else.
Barry Commoner
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No action is without its side effects.
Barry Commoner
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I see no reason to have my shirts ironed. It's irrational.
Barry Commoner
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For that reason the simple test of the slogan 'Consume Less' as a basis for social action on the environment would be to tell it to the blacks in the ghetto. The message will not be very well received for there are many people in this country who consume less than is needed to sustain a decent life.
Barry Commoner
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The gap between brute power and human need continues to grow, as the power fattens on the same faulty technology that intensifies the need.
Barry Commoner
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The modern assault on the environment began about 50 years ago, during and immediately after World War II.
Barry Commoner
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What is needed now is a transformation of the major systems of production more profound than even the sweeping post-World War II changes in production technology.
Barry Commoner
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Technologists practice faith too 'Faith that problems have solutions before having the knowledge to solve them.'
Barry Commoner
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After all, despite the economic advantage to firms that employed child labor, it was in the social interest, as a national policy, to abolish it - removing that advantage for all firms.
Barry Commoner
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When you fully understand the situation, it is worse than you think.
Barry Commoner
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Everything is connected to everything else. Everything must go somewhere. Nature knows best. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Barry Commoner
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The AEC had at its command an army of highly skilled scientists.
Barry Commoner
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The environmental crisis is a signal of this approaching catastrophe.
Barry Commoner
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Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law in journalism, literature and art.
Barry Commoner
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If environmentalism is a fad, it will be the last one.
Barry Commoner
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Nothing can survive on the planet unless it is a cooperative part of larger global life.
Barry Commoner
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In general, any productive activity which introduces substances foreign to the natural environment runs a considerable risk of polluting it.
Barry Commoner