Thursday, January 9, 2014

Jan. '14 Creation Corner Column: Environmental Aphorisms, Quotes, Quips, etc. for the New Year

Environmental Aphorisms, Quotes, Quips, etc. for the New Year

Perhaps you are looking for some shorthand way to perceive God's good Earth, to motivate you on behalf of the integrity of Creation, or redeeming it. Consider the following in your search.

We've got to stop treating the Earth as dirt!

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see." Thoreau

"The children are our most endangered species." Daniel Berrigan SJ

Dilution is still pollution; it's no solution, merely delusion.

"The American people see themselves marching through wilderness, drying up marshes, diverting rivers, peopling the wilds, and subduing nature." Alexis de Tocqueville

"The earth is all we have in common. It is what we are made of and what we live from, and we cannot damage it without damaging those with whom we share it." Wendell Berry

"Food is the unifying fabric of humanity, connecting us to the earth and each other." Ed Kenney, chef

"If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food either." Joseph Wood Krutch

If you can't spell it, or pronounce it, don't eat it.

"If economic growth and ecological health aren't reconcilable, which do we choose?" Jay Griffiths

"Our greatest problems result from the difference between how people think and how nature works." Gregory Bateson

"Anyone who thinks you can have infinite growth on a finite planet is either a madman or an economist." Quaker economist Kenneth Boulding

"We treat the earth like a business in liquidation." Herman Daly

"We are already fighting World War III, and I'm sorry to say we are winning it. It is the war against the Earth." Ray Dasmann

"What we most need to do is to hear within us the sound of the earth crying." Thich Nhat Hanh

"Zen is simple. Simple! So simple: Infinite gratitude to the past, infinite service to the present, infinite responsibility for the future." Goto, a Zen roshi in Japan

We are defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy.

Judge each day not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.

"Leave the coal in the hole, the oil in the soil, the gas under the grass." unattributed saying

Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.

Renewable energy is homeland security.

One solution comes up every morning (the sun!).

Whenever there is a huge spill of solar energy, it's just called a nice day.

Renewable Energy: The Answer is Blowing in the Wind.

Renewable is Doable.

The climate is changing faster than we are.

Climate change is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of science.

"Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms." President Barack Obama

The Holy Land is Everywhere.

"There are no unsacred places. There are only sacred places and desecrated places." Wendell Berry

"Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain, for strip-mined mountains majesty, above the asphalt plains. America, America, man sheds its waste on thee, and hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea." George Carlin

I pledge allegiance to the Earth, and all the Life which it supports, One Planet, in our care, irreplaceable, with sustenance and respect for all. Unattributed

"Sing to the Lord, bless his name...Let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar...Let the fields exult...Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy." Psalm 96

"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain..." Romans 8:22

Blogger Michael Ochs lives in Williamsport, PA.