#ecology

The ears were large, flaring forward, the eyes limpid amber, in which the pupil floated like a glittering jewel, changing color with shifts of the light:  obsidian, emerald, ruby, opal, amethyst, diamond. ↗

— William S. Burroughs

#lemurs #madagascar #change

Nature doesn't have a design problem. People do. ↗

— William McDonough (Author) Michael Braungart (Author)

#nature #design

To reverse the effects of civilization would destroy the dreams of a lot of people. There's no way around it. We can talk all we want about sustainability, but there's a sense in which it doesn't matter that these people's dreams are based on, embedded in, intertwined with, and formed by an inherently destructive economic and social system. Their dreams are still their dreams. What right do I -- or does anyone else -- have to destroy them. At the same time, what right do they have to destroy the world? ↗

— Derrick Jensen

#ecology #economics #environment #sustainability #dreams

The grassland is a big life, but it's thinner than people's eyelids. If you rupture its grassy surface, you blind it, and dust storms are more lethal than the white-hair blizzards. If the grassland dies, so will the cows and sheep and horses, as well as the wolves and the people, all the little lives. ↗

— Jiang Rong

#life

Labels bias our perceptions, thinking, and behavior. A label or story can either separate us from, or connect us to, nature. For our health and happiness, we must critically evaluate our labels and stories by their effects. ↗

— Michael J. Cohen

#ecology #health #labels #nature #psychology

I thus found that the student who wishes for a shelter can obtain one for a lifetime at an expense not greater than the rent which he now pays annually. If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself; and my shortcomings and inconsistencies do not affect the truth of my statement. ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#nature #the-woods #nature

Men say they know many things; But lo! they have taken wings, — The arts and sciences, And a thousand appliances; The wind that blows Is all that any body knows ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#ecology #science #art

Human use, population, and technology have reached that certain stage where mother Earth no longer accepts our presence with silence. ↗

— Dalai Lama XIV

#technology

The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction. ↗

— Rachel Carson

#ecology #reality #universe #wonder #wonder

The paradox of life lies exactly in this: its resources are finite, but it itself is endless. Such a contradictory state of affairs is feasible only because the resources accessible to life can be used over and over again. ↗

— I.I. Gitelson

#recycling #science #life