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We have been far too aggressive about extracting ocean wildlife, not appreciating that there are limits and even points of no return.

Sylvia Earle

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Sylvia Earle
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: August 30
Biologist
Botanist
Explorer
Marine Biologist
Oceanographer
Gibbstown
New Jersey
Sylvia Alice Earle
S.A.Earle
Ocean
Limits
Return
Extracting
Even
Appreciating
Wildlife
Aggressive
Points
Appreciate

More quotes by Sylvia Earle

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If the sea is sick, we'll feel it. If it dies, we die. Our future and the state of the oceans are one.
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My parents moved to Florida when I was 12, and my backyard was the Gulf of Mexico.
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For humans, the Arctic is a harshly inhospitable place, but the conditions there are precisely what polar bears require to survive - and thrive. 'Harsh' to us is 'home' for them. Take away the ice and snow, increase the temperature by even a little, and the realm that makes their lives possible literally melts away.
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The Arctic is a place that historically, during all preceding human history, has largely been an icy realm with an impact on ocean currents. That, in turn, influences the temperature of the planet. The Arctic is now vulnerable because of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, with a rate of melting that is stunning.
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We're still under the weight of this impression that the ocean is too big to fail, that the planet is too big to fail.
Sylvia Earle
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I've spent thousands of hours under water. And even in the deepest dive I have ever made, 2.5 miles (about 4 kilometers) down, I saw trash and other tangible evidence of our presence.
Sylvia Earle
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The sudden release of five million barrels of oil, enormous quantities of methane and two million gallons of toxic dispersants into an already greatly stressed Gulf of Mexico will permanently alter the nature of the area.
Sylvia Earle
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We are blessed with a place that is open to the universe and, despite this, supports this very thin envelope of air we call atmosphere, which holds just the right amount of oxygen for us to breathe.
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The very energy sources that have gotten us to where we are now are also, if we continue doing what we're doing, a shortcut to the end of all that we hold near and dear.
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Since the middle of the 20th century, more has been learnt about the ocean than during all preceding human history at the same time, more has been lost.
Sylvia Earle
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Fortunately, we know more about the problems that we have than in all preceding history. We know now the consequences of the things that we put into the air, into the water - of the way we treat life on Earth.
Sylvia Earle
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I personally have stopped eating seafood.
Sylvia Earle
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In the past few decades, Earth's natural systems have endured more pressure than in all preceding human history.
Sylvia Earle
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Even our rules and regulations, our laws, our policies, favor the destructive nature of taking too much from the ocean and using techniques that are horribly destructive. We know they don't work. We know it's not sustainable.
Sylvia Earle
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'Green' issues at last are attracting serious attention, owing to critically important links between the environment and the economy, health, and our security.
Sylvia Earle
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Ignorance is the biggest problem of all for the ocean - and for many other things as well.
Sylvia Earle
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Most of life on Earth has a deep past, much deeper than ours. And we have benefited from the distillation of all preceding history, call it evolutionary history if you will.
Sylvia Earle
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Ten percent of the big fish still remain. There are still some blue whales. There are still some krill in Antarctica. There are a few oysters in Chesapeake Bay. Half the coral reefs are still in pretty good shape, a jeweled belt around the middle of the planet. There's still time, but not a lot, to turn things around.
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All through college, I had frequently been the only girl in a science class - which wasn't such a bad deal.
Sylvia Earle
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We need to respect the oceans and take care of them as if our lives depended on it. Because they do.
Sylvia Earle