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The environmental crisis is a global problem, and only global action will resolve 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
Environmental
Global
Crisis
Action
Problem
Resolve

More quotes by Barry Commoner

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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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No action is without its side effects.
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Nothing can survive on the planet unless it is a cooperative part of larger global life.
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I see no reason to have my shirts ironed. It's irrational.
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The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else.
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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.
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The proper use of science is not to conquer nature but to live in it.
Barry Commoner
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World War II had a very important impact on the development of technology, as a whole.
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If environmentalism is a fad, it will be the last one.
Barry Commoner
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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.
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.
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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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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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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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The age of innocent faith in science and technology may be over.
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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The modern assault on the environment began about 50 years ago, during and immediately after World War II.
Barry Commoner
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Everything is connected to everything else.
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