Wangari Maathai Quotes

Earth Day should encourage us to reflect on what we are doing to make our planet a more sustainable and livable place.

I hardly can sleep. I feel that my target now is really to save Mother Earth for humanity. And it's doable.

So I'm going to go on and work on preserving the ozone layer, encouraging everyone to recycle.

We can make a concerted effort to stop poisoning the planet: that would be a good way of appeasing the gods.

I agree on the need for environmental sustainability. It is no good raising gross national income while at the same time destroying natural assets.

I believe the green movement is gaining momentum because people are becoming more educated about the real importance of living green.

Environmentalism opposes reckless innovation and makes conservation the central order of business.

When I joined Ford, in the late 1970s, I felt strongly we could not forever be a huge user of natural resources without there being consequences. But I was alone in my thinking in those days.

The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at least not try to defy them.

Being an environmentalist isn't all about doom and gloom.

We can power our economy without despoiling our wild places.

I, Maggie, personally cannot tell you that you're going to save the planet. But what I do know is that we can draw a line to an issue that can conserve what we already have and what's left in a way that we can actually breathe the air, drink the water, actually grow things in soil - that matters in a real, practical way.

We must preserve our planet and grow our economy simultaneously. We cannot become more prosperous without the living systems upon which our prosperity depends.

We learned that economic growth and environmental protection can and should go hand in hand.

I have never believed we had to choose between either a clean and safe environment or a growing economy. Protecting the health and safety of all Americans doesn’t have to come at the expense of our economy’s bottom line. And creating thriving companies and new jobs doesn’t have to come at the expense of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, or the natural landscape in which we live. We can, and indeed must, have both.

Building a 'Green Gabon' has always been a central pillar of my government, and in 2014, I introduced a new legal framework that puts environmental protection and sustainable development firmly at the heart of our future economic growth.

It's time for all of us to kind of think about the green initiative as a whole. Monetizing it is very important. It's on us to continue to put the message out.

Our planet's greener future depends on nurturing our natural and abundant renewable resources.

Our ecological emergency demands proactive choices, not reactive sideswipes.

We have been working towards providing a clean environment to the people of India, and we are doing it out of our own conviction.

We need to protect our environment and make our economy more sustainable so that we can pass on a better world to our grandchildren.

We only have one earth. Let's take care of it.

The city of the future development will be shifted from the pursuit of material civilisation to the pursuit of nature. This is what happens after human beings experience industrial civilisation at the expense of the natural environment.

We want to use the environment to shift the way our society works.

If you're a Conservative, why aren't you behind conserving the land?