My entry into the environmental arena was through the issue that so dramatically – and destructively – demonstrates the link between science and social action: nuclear weapons.
BARRY COMMONEREnvironmental quality was drastically improved while economic activity grew by the simple expedient of removing lead from gasoline – which prevented it from entering the environment.
More Barry Commoner Quotes
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In general, any productive activity which introduces substances foreign to the natural environment runs a considerable risk of polluting it.
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If environmentalism is a fad, it will be the last one.
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Nothing can survive on the planet unless it is a cooperative part of larger global life.
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The modern technologist is less ‘sorcerer’ and more ‘sorcerer’s apprentice’.
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The age of innocent faith in science and technology may be over.
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Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law; in journalism, literature and art.
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The environmental crisis is a sign that the ecosphere is now so heavily strained that its continued stability is threatened. It is a warning that we must discover the source of this suicidal drive and master it before it destroys the environment-and ourselves.
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If you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, you are looking the wrong way.
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In every case, the environmental hazards were made known only by independent scientists, who were often bitterly opposed by the corporations responsible for the hazards.
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What is needed now is a transformation of the major systems of production more profound than even the sweeping post-World War II changes in production technology.
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The AEC had at its command an army of highly skilled scientists.
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Environmental quality was drastically improved while economic activity grew by the simple expedient of removing lead from gasoline – which prevented it from entering the environment.
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No action is without its side effects.
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In certain ways, I’m not very different than I was when I was a teenager.
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All of the clean technologies are known, it’s a question of simply applying them.
BARRY COMMONER