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Environment Quotes

    “Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children.”

    Native American Proverb, Source

      “Perhaps our environmental problems are not best construed technically.  Maybe they’re best considered psychologically.  The more people sort themselves out, the more responsibility they will take for the world around them and the more problems they will solve.  It is better, proverbially, to rule your own spirit than to rule a city.  It’s easier to subdue an enemy without than one within.  Maybe the environmental problem is ultimately spiritual.  If we put ourselves in order, perhaps we will do the same for the world.  Of course, what else would a psychologist think?” ~ Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life (Page 364)

        “True happiness is always available to us, but first we have to create the environment for it to flourish.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 6)

          “We become what our environment encourages us to be.” ~ Laura L. Carstensen, Stanford Center on Longevity, via Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 35)

            “What we do or don’t do right now, me and my generation can’t undo in the future. So when school started in August of this year, I decided that this was enough. I set myself down on the ground outside the Swedish parliament. I school striked for the climate. Some people say that I should be in school instead. Some people say that I should study to become a climate scientist so that I can ‘solve the climate crisis.’ But the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change. And why should I be studying for a future that soon will be no more when no one is doing anything whatsoever to save that future? And what is the point of learning facts in the school system when the most important facts given by the finest science of that same school system clearly means nothing to our politicians and our society.” ~ Greta Thunberg, TED

              “Why are we not reducing our emissions? Why are they in fact still increasing? Are we knowingly causing a mass extinction? Are we evil? No, of course not. People keep doing what they do because the vast majority doesn’t have a clue about the actual consequences of our everyday life, and they don’t know that rapid change is required. We all think we know, and we all think everybody knows, but we don’t. Because how could we? If there really was a crisis, and if this crisis was caused by our emissions, you would at least see some signs. Not just flooded cities, tens of thousands of dead people, and whole nations leveled to piles of torn down buildings. You would see some restrictions. But no. And no one talks about it. There are no emergency meetings, no headlines, no breaking news. No one is acting as if we were in a crisis. Even most climate scientists or green politicians keep on flying around the world, eating meat and dairy.” ~ Greta Thunberg, TED

                “For those of us who are on the spectrum, almost everything is black or white. We aren’t very good at lying, and we usually don’t enjoy participating in this social game that the rest of you seem so fond of.  I think in many ways that we autistic are the normal ones, and the rest of the people are pretty strange, especially when it comes to the sustainability crisis, where everyone keeps saying climate change is an existential threat and the most important issue of all, and yet they just carry on like before. I don’t understand that, because if the emissions have to stop, then we must stop the emissions. To me that is black or white. There are no gray areas when it comes to survival. Either we go on as a civilization or we don’t. We have to change.” ~ Greta Thunberg, TED

                  “You can break a habit, but you’re unlikely to forget it.  Once the mental grooves of habit have been carved into your brain, they are nearly impossible to remove entirely—even if they go unused for quite a while.  And that means that simply resisting temptation is an ineffective strategy.  It is hard to maintain a Zen attitude in a life filled with interruptions.  It takes too much energy.  In the short-run, you can choose to overpower temptation.  In the long-run, we become a product of the environment that we live in.  To put it bluntly, I have never seen someone consistently stick to positive habits in a negative environment.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

                    “Nature is our mother.  Because we live cut off from her, we get sick.  Some of us live in boxes called apartments, very high above the ground.  Around us are only cement, metal, and hard things like that.  Our fingers do not have a chance to touch the soil; we don’t grow lettuce anymore.  Because we are so distant from our Mother Earth, we become sick.  That is why we need to go out from time to time and be in nature.  It is very important.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step

                      “If at all possible, commune with nature daily.  A quick walk through the woods or even a few minutes spent cultivating your tomato garden in the backyard will reconnect you to the wellspring of calm that may now be dormant within you.  Being with nature also allows you to tune in to the infinite wisdom of your highest self.  This self-knowledge will move you into the uncharted dimensions of your personal power.  Never forget this.” ~ Robin S. Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

                        “Just as a goldfish swimming in a tank of diseased water inevitably becomes sick, a human hanging out in a toxic peer group eventually becomes toxic.  When you place yourself in an environment, you eventually become the environment.  It’s inevitable.” ~ Sean Stephenson, Get Off Your “But“