Quotes about Sustainability

We have to rethink our whole energy approach, which is hard to do because we're so dependent on oil, not just for fuel but also plastic. If plastic vanished, there would be total chaos. We have to think quite carefully about using oil and its derivatives, because it's not going to be around forever.

We give people fish. We teach them to fish. We tear down the walls that have been built up around the fish pond. And we figure out who polluted it.

True fasting is not just depriving ourselves of privilege but als osharing sacrificially tob ring an end to the cycles of inequality, an end to creation's groaning and the groaning of hungry bellies.

That's why we give people fish, and also teach people to fish, and then also do something about who owns the pond. These all have to go together like a tripod or a three-legged stool. Without one leg, the stool get a little wobbly and out of balance. Charity workers need to also have a vision for justice. And justice workers need to keep their feet on the streets of injustice.

I also heard a good metaphor from a rancher. He was talking cows, but I think it works with people too. He explained that there are two ways to keep your cows together. One is by building fences and gates. The other is by creating a really good food source. When you create a really good food source in the center, you don't have to worry as much about all the gates and fences and who's in and who's out.

Some folks give people fish. Others teach people to fish. Others ask, "Who owns the pond? And why does a fishing license cost so much?

Ecology is a dirty seven-letter word to many people. They are like heavy sleepers refusing to be aroused. "Leave me alone! It's not time to get up yet!"

What I really think is going to happen over time is technology is going to change the way we live for the good for the environment.

A nation that can't control its energy sources can't control its future.

This is the moment we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.

Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.

And although it was hard to match his excitement over washers and dryers, the results really were pretty amazing: By the time I left office, those new appliance standards were on track to remove another 210 million metric tons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere annually.