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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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Sylvia Earle
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: August 30
Biologist
Botanist
Explorer
Marine Biologist
Oceanographer
Gibbstown
New Jersey
Sylvia Alice Earle
S.A.Earle
Deep
Call
History
Past
Distillation
Earth
Preceding
Much
Benefited
Life
Evolutionary
Deeper

More quotes by Sylvia Earle

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We have an atmosphere that is roughly 21% oxygen. The rest of it is largely nitrogen. There's just enough carbon dioxide (CO2) to drive photosynthesis. That has been, throughout the history of our species, pretty stable. Until recently.
Sylvia Earle
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There are now more than 4,000 places in the sea around the world that have some kind of protection. The bad news: You have to look hard to find them. What you find instead is destructive fishing, mining, gas and oil exploration.
Sylvia Earle
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When you think about the real cost of so-called cheap energy that has driven our prosperity to unprecedented levels, for some of us, to our horror, we've realized that this has the potential for burning brightly and then snuffing out.
Sylvia Earle
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What we once used as weapons of war, we now use as weapons against fish.
Sylvia Earle
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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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It is not too late to turn things around.
Sylvia Earle
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There are a lot of smart creatures out there. Dolphins, elephants, and whales are smart. And there are some really smart birds. I know some really intelligent fish. But they cannot know what humans know and are incapable of inflicting as much damage.
Sylvia Earle
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We have the capacity to alter the nature of nature. No, we don't have just the capacity - we are altering the nature of nature, the natural systems that cause the planet to function in our favor.
Sylvia Earle
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Places change over time with or without oil spills, but humans are responsible for the Deepwater Horizon gusher - and humans, as well as the corals, fish and other creatures, are suffering the consequences.
Sylvia Earle
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I am driven by what I know that the world I love is in trouble.
Sylvia Earle
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Look at a child and realize that their future is in your hands. It's not just those who will be here fifty years from now. The decisions we make in the next ten years will shape the next 10,000 years.
Sylvia Earle
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If we have a hope of really understanding our place in nature and of carving out a place for ourselves that is sustainable, it's primarily because of the new level of communication. It used to be, 'What you don't have in your mind, you have on your shelf.' But now we have the Web.
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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Forty percent of the United States drains into the Mississippi. It's agriculture. It's golf courses. It's domestic runoff from our lawns and roads. Ultimately, where does it go? Downstream into the gulf.
Sylvia Earle
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Our job is to keep what is working intact and not destroy what we have got.
Sylvia Earle
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Humans have always wondered the big questions, Who am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going? It's part of human nature. It's perhaps the underpinnings of religion.
Sylvia Earle
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Protecting vital sources of renewal - unscathed marshes, healthy reefs, and deep-sea gardens - will provide hope for the future of the Gulf, and for all of us.
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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Never before have we known what we know.
Sylvia Earle
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Childcare is a huge issue for young women whose work may require them to leave their families for weeks at a time.
Sylvia Earle