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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.

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
Power
Environmental
May
Development
Confront
Enough
Growth
Engine
Much
Economic
Associated
Effort
Engines
Quality
Improve
Powerful
Corporate
Change
Meaningful

More quotes by 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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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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Nothing can survive on the planet unless it is a cooperative part of larger global life.
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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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When you fully understand the situation, it is worse than you think.
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The AEC had at its command an army of highly skilled scientists.
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The environmental crisis is a signal of this approaching catastrophe.
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The environmental crisis is a global problem, and only global action will resolve it.
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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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Everything is connected to everything else.
Barry Commoner
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I see no reason to have my shirts ironed. It's irrational.
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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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Technologists practice faith too 'Faith that problems have solutions before having the knowledge to solve them.'
Barry Commoner
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The age of innocent faith in science and technology may be over.
Barry Commoner
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Recycling is a good thing to do. It makes people feel good to do it. The thing I want to emphasize is the vast difference between recycling for the purpose of feeling good and recycling for the purpose of solving the trash problem.
Barry Commoner
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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.
Barry Commoner
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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 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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In general, any productive activity which introduces substances foreign to the natural environment runs a considerable risk of polluting it.
Barry Commoner
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If environmentalism is a fad, it will be the last one.
Barry Commoner