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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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Sylvia Earle
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: August 30
Biologist
Botanist
Explorer
Marine Biologist
Oceanographer
Gibbstown
New Jersey
Sylvia Alice Earle
S.A.Earle
Water
Preceding
History
Fortunately
Earth
Consequences
Problem
Treat
Way
Treats
Things
Consequence
Life
Air
Problems

More quotes by 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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There is not a well-funded campaign among scientists to say, Look, here's the evidence. You can read it yourself. Here are the facts. We're not making this up.
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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We have found ways to capture, kill and market ocean wildlife on an unprecedented scale. It's an absolute catastrophe.
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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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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Many of us ask what can I, as one person, do, but history shows us that everything good and bad starts because somebody does something or does not do something.
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.
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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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
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Globally sharks have been killed for their fins, for their cartilage, for their livers, for their meat. But mostly what has driven some species of sharks to near extinction - including the hammerhead shark - is the new luxury taste for shark fin soup.
Sylvia Earle
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Never before have we known what we know.
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.
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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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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There's a vested interest in trying to keep people smoking cigarettes.
Sylvia Earle
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It is not too late to turn things around.
Sylvia Earle
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Evolution is not something to be feared. It's to be celebrated, embraced, and understood.
Sylvia Earle
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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
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There is this sweet spot in time when we have an opportunity to stop killing sharks and tunas and swordfish and other wildlife in the sea before it's too late.
Sylvia Earle