The AEC scientists were so narrowly focused on arming the United States for nuclear war that they failed to perceive facts – even widely known ones – that were outside their limited field of vision.
BARRY COMMONERFinally, since human beings are uniquely capable of producing materials not found in nature, environmental degradation may be due to the resultant intrusion into an ecosystem of a substance wholly foreign to it.
More Barry Commoner Quotes
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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 general, any productive activity which introduces substances foreign to the natural environment runs a considerable risk of polluting it.
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I see no reason to have my shirts ironed. It’s irrational.
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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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The modern assault on the environment began about 50 years ago, during and immediately after World War II.
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By adopting the control strategy, the nation’s environmental program has created a built-in antagonism between environmental quality and economic growth.
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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.
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No action is without its side effects.
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Finally, since human beings are uniquely capable of producing materials not found in nature, environmental degradation may be due to the resultant intrusion into an ecosystem of a substance wholly foreign to it.
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The environmental crisis is a signal of this approaching catastrophe.
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The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else.—->I dont believe in environmentalism as the solution to anything. What I believe is that environmentalism illuminates the things that need to be done to solve all of the problems together.
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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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In certain ways, I’m not very different than I was when I was a teenager.
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If you ask what you are going to do about global warming, the only rational answer is to change the way in which we do transportation, energy production, agriculture and a good deal of manufacturing. The problem originates in human activity in the form of the production of goods.
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The proper use of science is not to conquer nature but to live in it.
BARRY COMMONER






