Richard Lamm Quotes

Environmental disaster is the gravest threat to China's continued development. That's according to me, but it is not some wacko view.

The Rio Earth Summit in 1992 changed my life completely, turning me into an activist. From the air, you see things you can't see from the ground - you really understand the impact of man, even in a place you know well. My work is meant to convince people we can no longer live like this.

I think we should all be more concerned about the environment and the effects of global warming. It will be pointless to talk about all the issues that divide us when it's 300 degrees outside.

The environmental crisis is a global problem, and only global action will resolve it.

I think the environmental problem will be the number one item on the agenda of the 21st century... This is a problem that cannot be postponed.

For the sake of our health, our children and grandchildren and even our economic well-being, we must make protecting the planet our top priority.

I think we have grave problems. I am very much concerned about environmental questions, even though in Finnish society, we are not facing the most urgent problems.

China leads the world in energy consumption, carbon emissions, and the release of major air and water pollutants, and the environmental impact is felt both regionally and globally.

I think its time to change and balance the environment and growth. If we don't do that, we're going to suffer a hard landing one day very soon.

The fundamental problem for Republicans when it comes to the environment is that whatever you say is viewed through the prism of suspicion.

On this 50th Earth Day, we face a crisis unknown to those who gathered on the first Earth Day - the climate crisis.

The trouble with ecological invocations of Nature is that they're like calling for a medieval tool, perhaps a portcullis or an arrow slit, to fix a modern problem.

The environment, stabilizing the climate, needs urgent attention from all of us.

Whether you believe in climate change or not, we want clean air. We want clean water for the American people.

I think the environment is the biggest threat mankind has ever faced.

We may get to the point where the only way of saving the world will be for industrial civilization to collapse.

All we can hope for is that the thing is going to slowly and imperceptibly shift. All I can say is that 50 years ago there were no such thing as environmental policies.

It's a sad day when a cartoon is doing more and cares more and pays more attention to the environment than our president.

We must act swiftly in order to halt the rate of decay our planet faces.

We need to start by having a conversation about climate change. It would be irresponsible to avoid the issue just because it's uncomfortable to talk about.

I think my message to the politicians who have within their power the ability to make change is, 'Do you really, really not care about the future of your great-grandchildren? Because if we let the world continue to be destroyed the way we are now, what's the world going to be like for your great-grandchildren?'

We have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it. And to take good care of it, we have to know it. And to know it and to be willing to take care of it, we have to love it.

So often we talk about saving the planet, but what we really mean is to save the planet the way it is, so we can live here. So that is can sustain us. Because the planet doesn't need to be saved. It doesn't care if all the squirrels, elephants, and trees die and there's just a couple of amoebas floating around at the poles.

I think we are in the midst of this period where we are committing this suicide on the planet and everybody is just using up all of our natural resources like a bunch of insane people. That's what I worry about more than I worry about jazz.

We don't need a War on Carbon. We need a new prosperity that can be shared by all while still respecting a multitude of real ecological limits - not just atmospheric gas concentrations, but topsoil depth, water supplies, toxic chemical concentrations, and the health of ecosystems, including the diversity of life they depend upon.