The most intractable problem today is not pollution or technology or war; but the lack of belief that the future is very much in the hands of the individual.
The favorite statistic is that the U. S. contains 6 to 7% of the world population but consumes more than half the world's resources and is responsible for that fraction of the total environmental pollution. But this statistic hides another vital fact: that not everyone in the U. S. is so affluent.
When you look at what has happened over the last few decades the natural fluctuations point in the opposite direction of what has actually occurred. When they run the models and plug in the man-made pollution, the correspondence is exact. Beyond that, the scale of natural fluctuations has now been far exceeded by the impact of man-made global warming.
Our planet is warming due to pollution from human activities. And a warming climate increases the likelihood of extreme weather.
Today the great gift of God's Creation is exposed to serious dangers and lifestyles which can degrade it. Environmental pollution is making particularly unsustainable the lives of the poor of the world. . . we must pledge ourselves to take care of creation and to share its resources in solidarity.
No country can hide from the dangers of carbon pollution
Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.
Everything is connected. There is no such thing as an island, especially in our world, global village, the whole thing. Pollution from way across the ocean circulates in the air.
If you want to talk about the pollution coming from Ohio, please don't leave out the pollution coming your way from China.
Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the open out under the sky. Before we devised artificial lights and atmospheric pollution and modern forms of nocturnal entertainment we watched the stars. There were practical calendar reasons of course but there was more to it than that. Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these years it still takes my breath away.
Between the late 1950s and the late 1980s, more than 750 million tons of chemical wastes were discarded.
Many state governments have launched innovative steps such as Ladli Laxmi scheme of Madhya Pradesh, PDS reform scheme of Chattisgarh, computerization of land records in Karnataka, free computers to students passing 10th standard exams, pollution control efforts in Himachal, power sector reforms in Rajasthan and Mumbai - Pune Expressway in Maharashta. These excellent innovative schemes are examples of good governance.
There is an increasing sense of what can be called legal pollution.
Pollution is nothing but resources we're not harvesting.
The true cost of the pollution that is being dumped into the atmosphere and manifests itself in our sick children dealing with asthma or older folks dealing with heart and lung disease from the pollutions created by the burning of these fossil fuels, may not be reflected in the prices of fossil fuels, but that does not mean we aren't paying a high price for them.
We are looking for happiness and running after it in such a way that creates anger, fear and discrimination. So when you attend a retreat, you have a chance to look at the deep roots of this pollution of the collective energy that is unwholesome.
People say that the monetary system produces incentive. This may be true in limited areas, but it also produces greed, embezzlement, corruption, pollution, jealousy, anger, crime, war, poverty, tremendous scarcity, and unnecessary human suffering. You have to look at the entire picture.
Racism, pollution and the rest of it are themselves very close to extinction.
After all, the same steps that reduce carbon pollution also clean the air we breathe, which saves lives and reduces disease.
We should tax things we don't like. We should tax pollution. . . And we should lighten the taxes on things we do like, like honest labor, like food.