Weekend Quote

Blooming too early in Western PA  Winter 2016

"If we are able to prevent the worst effects of climate change, I want my son to know that I was a part of it. And if not, I want him to know we tried really hard."

~Nicole Hernandez Hammer

Southeast climate advocate for the Union of Concerned Scientists

Weekend Quote

Weekend quote: The threat of selfish men and greedy interests

Photo by Fabrizio Conti

 

Here is your country. 

Cherish these natural wonders, 

cherish the natural resources, 

cherish the history and romance 

as a sacred heritage, 

for your children 

and your children’s children. 

Do not let selfish men 

or greedy interests 

skin your country of its beauty, 

its riches 

or its romance.

 —Theodore Roosevelt

The human/nature connection

Photo by George Hodan

What we are doing 

to the forests of the world 

is but a mirror reflection 

of what we are doing 

to ourselves and to one another.
 

― Chris Maser

Forest Primeval: The Natural History of an Ancient Forest

Weekend quote -- Balance in the fields

Producing organically is safe

for both the producer and the consumer,

and it conserves the environment

in every way.

We can find that natural balance

for our fields again.

If we grow organically,

we become sustainable.

~Thong Ma

To seek to know what is true -- Weekend Quote

Image by Maliz Ong

We cannot know the 

whole truth,

which belongs to 

God alone,

but our task 

nevertheless

is to seek to know 

what is true.

And if we offend 

gravely enough

against what we know 

to be true,

as by failing badly enough 

to deal 

affectionately 

and 

responsibly

with our land 

and 

our neighbors,

truth will retaliate with

ugliness,

poverty,

and 

disease.

The crisis of this line of thought

is the realization

that we are at once

limited

and 

unendingly responsible

for what we know 

and do. 

~Wendell Berry    

Need or greed? Weekend Quote

Photo by Larisa Koshkina

"Earth provides enough to satisfy 

every man's need, 

but not every man's greed." 

~ Mohandas K. Gandhi

The new generation... perhaps one that will care

Image by Peter Griffin

Mother Earth is hurting. 

And she needs a generation of thoughtful, 

 caring and active kids like all of you 

to protect her for the future.

~ Leonardo DiCaprio

Weekend quote

The power to kill

Photo by Kim Newburg

"These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied 

almost universally 

to farms, gardens, forests, and homes - 

nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill 

every insect, the 'good' and the 'bad,' 

to still the song of birds
and the leaping of fish in the streams, 

to coat the leaves with a deadly film, 

and to linger on in soil - 

all this though the intended target may be only 

a few weeds or insects. 

Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down 

such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? 

They should not be called 'insecticides,' but 'biocides.'"

-- Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

Feed my sheep

Photo by Petr Kratochvil

"I wish they would remember

that the charge to Peter was 'Feed my sheep,'

not 'Try experiments on my rats,' or even

'Teach my performing dogs new tricks.'"

— C.S. Lewis

Ecological literacy

"Children the world over

have a right to a childhood filled with

beauty, joy, adventure, and companionship. They will grow toward ecological literacy

if the soil they are nurtured in is rich with experience, love, and good examples."

~Alan Dyer, “A Sense of Adventure”

The death of a society

Photo by Peter Griffin

Today, I'm grieving the death of a society

that cared about the earth.

A society that wasn't wasteful.

A society that didn't have so much

that barely anything was of value.

~ Hana Haatainen Caye

I am a Coward

Our purpose

A beautiful blue dragonfly I spotted while in Hancock, MD

The purpose of life is not to be happy --  

but to matter, to be productive, to be useful,

to have it make some difference

that you have lived at all.

~Leo Rosten

Exploitation

Photo by Peter Griffin

The earth we abuse

and the living things we kill will,

in the end,

take their revenge;

for in exploiting their presence

we are diminishing our future.

~Marya Mannes, More in Anger, 1958



Photo by Bobby Mikul

We ourselves feel that what we are doing

is just a drop in the ocean.

But the ocean would be less

because of that missing drop.

-- Mother Teresa              

Photo by Peter Griffin

We are living on this planet

as if we had another one

to go to.

-- Terri Swearingen               

If I am going to be

in the right relationship

with God,

I should treat the things He has made

in the same way He treats them.

                                            -- Francis Schaeffer (1912-84),

                                           Pollution and the Death of Man

Saturday's quote

"Never, no, never,
did Nature say one thing,

and wisdom say another."

                                                -- Edmund Burke
                                                   1797

Our responsibility

We have too long treated the natural world

as an adversary

rather than as a life - sustaining gift from the Almighty.

If man has the genius to build,

which he has,

he must also have the ability

and the responsibility

to preserve.

                                                                              -- Gerald Ford