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The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else.

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
Law
Else
Nature
Firsts
Everything
First
Ecology
Related
Animal

More quotes by Barry Commoner

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The proper use of science is not to conquer nature but to live in it.
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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.
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The most meaningful engine of change, powerful enough to confront corporate power, may be not so much environmental quality, as the economic development and growth associated with the effort to improve it.
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World War II had a very important impact on the development of technology, as a whole.
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Everything is connected to everything else.
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In general, any productive activity which introduces substances foreign to the natural environment runs a considerable risk of polluting it.
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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.
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As the earth spins through space, a view from above the North Pole would encompass most of the wealth of the world - most of its food, productive machines, doctors, engineers and teachers. A view from the opposite pole would encompass most of the world's poor.
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I see no reason to have my shirts ironed. It's irrational.
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The environmental crisis is a signal of this approaching catastrophe.
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When you fully understand the situation, it is worse than you think.
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Technologists practice faith too 'Faith that problems have solutions before having the knowledge to solve them.'
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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.
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The favorite statistic is that the U.S. contains 6 to 7% of the world population but consumes more than half the world's resources and is responsible for that fraction of the total environmental pollution. But this statistic hides another vital fact: that not everyone in the U.S. is so affluent.
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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.
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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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The modern assault on the environment began about 50 years ago, during and immediately after World War II.
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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.
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In every case, the environmental hazards were made known only by independent scientists, who were often bitterly opposed by the corporations responsible for the hazards.
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Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law in journalism, literature and art.
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