#stems

The Everglades was the only place on earth where alligators (broad snout, fresh water, darker skin) and crocodiles (pointy snout, salt water, toothy grin) lived side by side. It was the only home of the Everglades mink, Okeechobee gourd, and Big Cypress fox squirrel. It had carnivorous plants, amphibious birds, oysters that grew on trees, cacti that grew in water, lizards that changed colors, and fish that changed genders. It had 1,100 species of trees and plants, 350 birds, and 52 varieties of porcelain-smooth, candy-striped tree snails. It had bottlenose dolphins, marsh rabbits, ghost orchids, moray eels, bald eagles, and countless other species that didn't seem to belong on the same continent, much less in the same ecosystem. ↗

— Michael Grunwald

#ecosystems #environment #everglades #change

The tendency has always been strong to believe that whatever received a name must be an entity or being, having an independent existence of its own. And if no real entity answering to the name could be found, men did not for that reason suppose that none existed, but imagined that it was something peculiarly abstruse and mysterious. ↗

— John Stuart Mill

#science #systems #imagination

It may be possible to discover which religion is the most profound, but if we ask which religious system is best, it is difficult to respond. The value of a religion is relative to each individual. A religion's philosophical view may be the most profound and comprehensive, but still it can be inappropriate for a particular individual. Buddha did not always teach he most profound perspective. Rather than trying to force the deepest view on everyone, he taught according to individual interest and dispositions. ↗

— Dalai Lama XIV Becoming Enlightened

#compare #perspective #religion #systems #religion

The essential fact which emerges ... is that the three smallest and most active reservoirs ( of carbon in the global carbon cycle), the atmosphere, the plants and the soil, are all of roughly the same size. This means that large human disturbance of any one of these reservoirs will have large effects on all three. We cannot hope either to understand or to manage the carbon in the atmosphere unless we understand and manage the trees and the soil too. ↗

— Freeman John Dyson

#science #systems #science

While we are under the tyranny of Priests, it will ever be their interest, to invalidate the law of nature and reason, in order to establish systems incompatible therewith. ↗

— Ethan Allen

#ever #incompatible #interest #law #nature

The system has already anticipated the freedom seeking mechanism in humans. ↗

— Bryant McGill

#humanity #systems #freedom

A healthy Amtrak is an integral part of New York and the Nation's economy and transportation systems. ↗

— Tim Bishop

#economy #healthy #integral #nation #new

Our incapacity to comprehend other cultures stems from our insistence on measuring things in our own terms. ↗

— Arthur Erickson

#cultures #incapacity #insistence #measuring #other

When I played with the Knicks, I was just as important or just as smart as any other of the guards I played with. I still had to call out plays, notice schemes, know the systems, do everything they had to do. ↗

— Patrick Ewing

#call #everything #guards #had #i

Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what can and cannot be done. ↗

— James Fenton

#done #fine #fine thing #forgery #generous