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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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Sylvia Earle
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: August 30
Biologist
Botanist
Explorer
Marine Biologist
Oceanographer
Gibbstown
New Jersey
Sylvia Alice Earle
S.A.Earle
Law
Destructive
Horribly
Nature
Technique
Regulations
Even
Using
Sustainable
Work
Rules
Techniques
Much
Ocean
Regulation
Laws
Policies
Taking
Favor
Policy
Favors

More quotes by Sylvia Earle

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The most important part is to take on the challenge of protecting the ocean as if your life depends on it - because it does.
Sylvia Earle
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My parents moved to Florida when I was 12, and my backyard was the Gulf of Mexico.
Sylvia Earle
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The burning of fossil fuels has altered the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere so rapidly and so abundantly that now, we are driving not just the warming trend, not just the sea level rise that is a consequence of the warming trend that is melting polar ice and alpine ice, but also [ocean acidification].
Sylvia Earle
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The climate has been changing. Of course it [has]. Evidence throughout history, [which] we can assess, especially during human history, shows there have been ups and downs. But the last ten thousand years have been relatively stable compared to now.
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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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
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Never before have we known what we know.
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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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
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Great attention gets paid to rainforests because of the diversity of life there. Diversity in the oceans is even greater.
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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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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With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live.
Sylvia Earle
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Only two percent of the ocean is fully protected right now.
Sylvia Earle
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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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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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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
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The end of commercial fishing is predicted long before the middle of the 21st century.
Sylvia Earle
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Eating wildlife is probably not the smartest thing that we can do in terms of maintaining the integrity of natural systems.
Sylvia Earle
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Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea.
Sylvia Earle