Humans are the only creatures with the ability to dive deep in the sea, fly high in the sky, send instant messages around the globe, reflect on the past, assess the present and imagine the future.
SYLVIA EARLEIf you think the ocean isn’t important, imagine Earth without it. Mars comes to mind. No ocean, no life support system.
More Sylvia Earle Quotes
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The ocean certainly got my attention! It wasn’t frightening, it was more exhilarating.
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There’s something missing about how we’re informing the youngsters coming along about what matters in the world. We teach them the numbers and the letters, but we fail to communicate the importance of our connection to the living world.
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Any astronaut can tell you you’ve got to do everything you can to learn about your life support system and then do everything you can to take care of it.
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To lose it means that we will dismember the vital systems that make the Arctic work. It’s not just a cost to the people who live there. It’s a cost to all people everywhere.
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There are some who would like to see the oil rigs removed right down to the ground once their job is done, and there are others, and I count myself among them, who think that once they are in place they begin to be adopted by life in the ocean as a habitat.
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The Exxon Valdez spill triggered a swift and strong response that changed policies about shipping, about double-hulled construction. A number of laws came into place.
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Forty percent of the United States drains into the Mississippi. It’s agriculture. It’s golf courses. It’s domestic runoff from our lawns and roads. Ultimately, where does it go? Downstream into the gulf.
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And there’s no question that it is a factor, but it’s preceded by the loss of resilience and degradation.
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Green’ issues at last are attracting serious attention, owing to critically important links between the environment and the economy, health, and our security.
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America gains most when individuals have great freedom to pursue personal goals without undue government interference.
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Take away the ice and snow, increase the temperature by even a little, and the realm that makes their lives possible literally melts away.
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Ten percent of the big fish still remain. There are still some blue whales. There are still some krill in Antarctica.
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Large areas of the Gulf have escaped being scraped by trawls, crushed by more than 40,000 miles of pipelines, or displaced by one of 50,000 oil and gas wells drilled since the middle of the 20th century. Some places have been deliberately protected.
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The fragility, and even the degradation of our planet’s blue heart.
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Far and away, the greatest threat to the ocean, and thus to ourselves, is ignorance. But we can do something about that.
SYLVIA EARLE