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We have become frighteningly effective at altering nature.
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
Disaster
Loss
Environment
Nature
Become
Frighteningly
Altering
Effective
More quotes by Sylvia Earle
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
We want to believe that we can continue doing what we've done for the past thousand years and not worry about the consequences coming back to us.
Sylvia Earle
It has taken these many hundreds of millions of years to fine-tune the Earth to a point where it is suitable for the likes of us.
Sylvia Earle
The best scientists and explorers have the attributes of kids! They ask question and have a sense of wonder. They have curiosity. 'Who, what, where, why, when, and how!' They never stop asking questions, and I never stop asking questions, just like a five year old.
Sylvia Earle
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.
Sylvia Earle
By the end of the 20th century, up to 90 percent of the sharks, tuna, swordfish, marlins, groupers, turtles, whales, and many other large creatures that prospered in the Gulf for millions of years had been depleted by overfishing.
Sylvia Earle
The Exxon Valdez spill triggered a swift and strong response that changed policies about shipping, about double-hulled construction. A number of laws came into place.
Sylvia Earle
We are not only warming the ocean and the planet as a whole, but we are also acidifying the ocean and changing its chemistry.
Sylvia Earle
The opportunity that is unique [to our] time is what inspires me to do everything I can to move things forward. This is the first time that we have the capacity to understand our place in the greater scheme of things to the extent that we do.
Sylvia Earle
Never again will we have this good a chance as we now have to find an enduring place for ourselves within the natural systems that keep us alive. It's a sweet spot in history. That's why this is such a critical time.
Sylvia Earle
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.
Sylvia Earle
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
We want to think of ourselves as truly special creatures that are unique in the universe and, well, we are. And we have that capacity to wonder, to question, and to see ourselves in the context of all of life that has preceded the present time, and all that will go off far into the future, one way or another.
Sylvia Earle
Use your power to do whatever it takes to secure for humankind an enduring place on this little blue speck in the universe - our only hope.
Sylvia Earle
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
I want everybody to go jump in the ocean to see for themselves how beautiful it is, how important it is to get acquainted with fish swimming in the ocean, rather than just swimming with lemon slices and butter.
Sylvia Earle
Ocean acidification - the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is turning the oceans increasingly acid - is a slow but accelerating impact with consequences that will greatly overshadow all the oil spills put together. The warming trend that is CO2-related will overshadow all the oil spills that have ever occurred put together.
Sylvia Earle
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
My parents moved to Florida when I was 12, and my backyard was the Gulf of Mexico.
Sylvia Earle
It's taken us a short time to change the nature of nature. In my lifetime, more change than during all preceding human history put together.
Sylvia Earle
