Sylvia Earle Quotes
In terms of personal choices, let's all think more carefully about where we get our protein from.
The ocean is dying, and we have no place to escape to if this experiment doesn't go in our favor.
We are not only warming the ocean and the planet as a whole, but we are also acidifying the ocean and changing its chemistry.
The very energy sources that have gotten us to where we are now are also, if we continue doing what we're doing, a shortcut to the end of all that we hold near and dear.
Burning fossil fuels has given us the gift of seeing ourselves in new ways. But that very gift now enables us to see we've got to change our ways.
Meat reared on land matures relatively quickly, and it takes only a few pounds of plants to produce a pound of meat.
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.
When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do.
There is not a well-funded campaign among scientists to say, "Look, here's the evidence. You can read it yourself. Here are the facts. We're not making this up."
In the past few decades, Earth's natural systems have endured more pressure than in all preceding human history.
We are blessed with a place that is open to the universe and, despite this, supports this very thin envelope of air we call atmosphere, which holds just the right amount of oxygen for us to breathe.
'Green' issues at last are attracting serious attention, owing to critically important links between the environment and the economy, health, and our security.
We are depleting this immense diversity and abundance of life, and it matters tremendously for the future of the planet.
It's mainly the high-end luxury market now that drives much of the fishing in the sea. It's not feeding the starving millions. It's feeding a luxury market.
We want to believe that we can continue doing what we've done for the past thousand years and not worry about the consequences coming back to us.
We have found ways to capture, kill and market ocean wildlife on an unprecedented scale. It's an absolute catastrophe.
Ignorance is the biggest problem of all for the ocean - and for many other things as well.
Our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels and the corporate mandate to maximize shareholder value encourages drilling without taking into account the costs to the ocean, even without major spills.
The observations that have developed over the years have given us perspective about where we fit in. We are newcomers, really recent arrivals on a planet that is four and a half billion years old.
It has taken these many hundreds of millions of years to fine-tune the Earth to a point where it is suitable for the likes of us.
With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live. Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere is generated by the sea.
I have heard endlessly that fish are so resilient that there is no way that you could exterminate a species. We are learning otherwise.