David R. Brower
David R. Brower
David Ross Browerwas a prominent environmentalist and the founder of many environmental organizations, including the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies, Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters, Earth Island Institute, North Cascades Conservation Council, and Fate of the Earth Conferences. From 1952 to 1969, he served as the first Executive Director of the Sierra Club, and served on its board three times: from 1941–1953; 1983–1988; and 1995–2000. As a younger man, he was a prominent mountaineer...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEnvironmentalist
Date of Birth1 July 1912
CountryUnited States of America
David R. Brower quotes about
Polite conversationalists leave no mark save the scars upon the Earth that could have been prevented had they stood their ground.
If something's going wrong with this planet we'd better fix it here and not look for some sort of escape.
You don't have a conservation policy unless you have a population policy.
Have fun saving the world, or you are just going to depress yourself.
We may learn anew what compassion and beauty are, and pause to listen to the Earth's music.
While the death of young men in war is unfortunate, it is no more serious than the touching of mountains and wilderness areas by humankind.
If I could go back to a point in history to try to get things to come out differently, I would go back and tell moses to go up the mountain again and get the other tablet. Because the Ten Commandments just tell us what we are supped to do with one another, not a word about our relationship to the earth. Genesis starts with these commands: multiply, replenish the earth, and subdue it. We have multiplied very well, we have replenished our populations very well, we have subdued it all too well, and we don't have any other instruction.
Yet another proposal would have us rocket the waste into the sun, but, as you're probably aware, about one in ten of our space shots doesn't quite make it out of the earth's gravitational field.
The risk presented by these lethal wastes is like no other risk, and we should not be expected to accept it or to project it into the future in order for manufacturers and utilities to make a dollar killing now.
It's like turning the space program over to the Long Island Railroad.
At that time a senator who was on the Joint Committee of Atomic Energy said rather quietly, 'You know, we're having a little problem with waste these days.' I didn't know what he meant then, but I know now.
Politicians are like weather vanes. Our job is to make the wind blow.
For how many people do you think might yet stand on this planet before the sun grows cold? That's the responsibility we hold in our hands.
Once we open the door to the plutonium economy, we expose ourselves to absolutely terrible, horrifying risks from these people.