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I suppose I'd characterize myself as having a faith-based optimism. My faith is parental and Darwinian.

Denis Hayes

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Denis Hayes
Age: 80
Born: 1944
Born: January 1
Climate Activist
Ecologist
Environmentalist
Wisconsin
United States
Denis Allen Hayes
Suppose
Based
Faith
Characterize
Darwinian
Parental
Optimism

More quotes by Denis Hayes

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That said, I'm embarrassed and furious that so many coal-state Democrats in the U.S. Senate are paralyzing international progress to protect the short term interests of a dying industry that ravages the environment from mine to slag heap.
Denis Hayes
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By the year 2000, such renewable energy sources could provide 40 percent of the global energy budget by 2025, humanity could obtain 75 percent of its energy from solar resources.
Denis Hayes
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Earth Day gathered up those strands, and dozens more, and knitted them together in the public consciousness as environmental issues. The nation was pretty startled when 20 million people hit the streets. Congress, which had adjourned for the day to go back to its districts, was blown away.
Denis Hayes
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The sunshine that strikes American roads each year contains more energy than all the fossil fuels used by the entire world.
Denis Hayes
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Under communism, prices were not allowed to reflect economic reality. Under capitalism, prices don't reflect ecological reality. In the long run, the capitalist flaw -- if uncorrected -- may prove to be the more catastrophic.
Denis Hayes
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I feel more confident than ever that the power to save the planet rests with the individual consumer.
Denis Hayes
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We got everyone's attention, but we didn't solve any environmental problems.
Denis Hayes
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America has the technology and resources to meet all its energy needs while safeguarding the earth's climate. The urgent question now is, 'Do we have the will?' At least one city does, and I'm proud to live in it.
Denis Hayes
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Zeroes are important. A million seconds ago was last week. A billion seconds ago, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency. A trillion seconds ago was 30,000 BC, and early humans were using stone tools.
Denis Hayes
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The easiest way to make something cool is to get cool people to do it. Part of this might mean the president has to forget tensions with opponents, or people like Arnold Schwarzenegger who has actually been decent with oil issues. Maybe he needs to pull some of the cool people in and make them model the right behaviors.
Denis Hayes
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Sustainability requires that we demand enduring quality. Steve Strong has a slide presentation pointing out that much of Oxford was built 800 years ago. What are we building today that will be here 800 years from now? If something like that emerged from this recession, it would help justify the hardship so many people are currently experiencing.
Denis Hayes
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These are not exhortations from overwrought extremists, but carefully phrased warnings from some of the world's finest scientists.
Denis Hayes
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Asbestos, EMFs, and CFCs have given us a degree of humility. When yesterday's triumph of modern chemistry turns out instead to be today's deadly threat to the global environment, it is legitimate to ask what else we don't know.
Denis Hayes
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There are a few obvious consequences and perhaps one subtle possibility. One obvious thing is that, to stimulate the economy, President Obama has committed to creating millions of green jobs that will leave a legacy - much as Roosevelt's public works did during the new deal.
Denis Hayes
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An acre of windy prairie could produce between $4,000 and 10,000 worth of electricity per year - which is far more than the value of the land's crop of corn or wheat.
Denis Hayes
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There really wasn't an environmental movement 30 years ago. The Sierra Club national office in 1969 consisted of one full-time volunteer.
Denis Hayes
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Listen up, you couch potatoes: each recycled beer can saves enough electricity to run a television for three hours.
Denis Hayes
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When we held the first Earth Day, everyone said it was a success because of the huge turnout. It was probably the largest planned event across the country.
Denis Hayes
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Build high-speed, electrified trains over the most-traveled corridors. It'sreally hard to power carbon-free airplanes, but electrified trains are much easier. We'll be a half century behind the Japanese, but better late than never.
Denis Hayes
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Whether you are buying a car or casting a ballot, choosing a job or planning a family, follow your moral compass. Don't let others define you. Don't let advertisers mold you don't let zealots ensnare you don't let conventional wisdom trap you....you are part of a much larger whole.
Denis Hayes