Lo There

[Richard]

Hey,

Introducing myself as ordered!

I'm a research scientist from the UK, mainly interested in sustainable development, specifically with regards to urban water management e.g. water supply, water pollution, water use/reuse/recycling, water and urban ecology etc etc.

So.....consider myself introduced.

By the way, now that I've got everyone's attention - I need some quotes for a report I'm working on. I'm after some sayings re: the environment/sustainable development/conservation/etc so that I can put these at the foot of each page of the report (a different quote for each page). If anyone has any favourites then feel free to post them for me (including reference if you know it as well).

Cheers
-Rob

Ps - any quotes from George Bush (Jnr) appreciated also. I like a good laugh as much as the next person.

[LeeP]

Greetings Robster,
Welcome to the forum.

Here's a quote I like off the top of my head.

"So bleak is the picture... that the bulldozer and not the atomic bomb may turn out to be the most destructive invention of the 20th century."

It's by Philip Shabecoff, an environmental journalist. I'm sure if you give me time to think about it I can come up with more. I love a good quote.

Also, you might ask adi, a veritable fount of quotes.

Lee

[LeeP]

Hi Rob,
Forgot the rest of the quote reference. Sorry.

It's from the New York Times Magazine, June 4, 1978.

Lee

Great to have you here Rob.

[S]

greetings robster! im glad you could join us i would love to pick your brain at a later stage too, for example whats are your thoughts on the popularity of domestic gardening chemical usage of some the most behemothic household brands?

heres a favorite quote of mine, i know its long winded however you may want to extract excerpts of your preference :

"A sustainable agriculture must be economically viable, socially responsible, and ecologically sound. The economic, social, and ecological are interrelated, and all are essential to sustainability. An agriculture that uses up or degrades its natural resource base, or pollutes the natural environment, eventually will lose its ability to produce. It’s not sustainable. An agriculture that isn’t profitable, at least over time, will not allow its farmers to stay in business. It’s not sustainable. An agriculture that fails to meet the needs of society, as producers and citizens as well as consumers, will not be sustained by society. It’s not sustainable. A sustainable agriculture must be all three – ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially responsible. And the three must be in harmony." -- Dr. John E. Ikerd, Extension Professor, University of Missouri

[altyfc]

Hello Rob... at this rate the Leeds contingent is going to outweight the one on the IOW...

Aaron

[Richard]

Originally Posted by S

...i would love to pick your brain at a later stage too, for example whats are your thoughts on the popularity of domestic gardening chemical usage of some the most behemothic household brands?

Um, well to address that issue I would look more at the root causes as to why people even need to apply chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, fertlizers etc) to domestic gardens and I think the answer is both rooted in ecology and culture. Culture because (in the UK at least) the 'ideal' garden as viewed by most people is a completely unnatural creation, mostly a monoculture of large grassed areas with possibly some plants around the edges or in flower beds. We can thank the Victorians for creating this ideal, although (and here is the ecology part) this type of arrangement never existed in the natural world and in fact nature tries her best to re-establish what should be there. Consequently we have to constantly fight to try and maintain what we think should be there. It's a fight we can't ultimately win, but we can do a lot of damage in the meantime by applying a lot of rather nasty chemicals.

Possibly the best answer would be to educate people so that they realise they are fighting a losing battle and that despite what they have been told (a neat, tidy garden = good) in fact what they are creating is an artificial ecological wasteland and that, rather than trying to force nature to do what we think it should be doing, we should let it take its course and people should take on the role of 'managing' what's there rather than destroying or attempting to replace it.

In my opinion, of course.

-Rob

[TheGreenerThinker]

Well said young man. And what a fantastic excuse for me not weeding, mowing the lawn, blah blah blah. I'll tell 'er indoors now

[S]

Originally Posted by TheGreenerThinker

Well said young man. And what a fantastic excuse for me not weeding, mowing the lawn, blah blah blah. I'll tell 'er indoors now

hehe thats great greenthinker

and robster i agree, well said..we're on the same page with that

[Richard]

Originally Posted by S

...and robster i agree, well said..we're on the same page with that

When I'm researching current environmental problems I usually find that one the root causes of the problem is mankind's general attitude of 'we know best' i.e. we know what works better than nature herself does.

Only 9 times out of 10 we underestimate just how complex and inter-related the natural systems that we are messing with are, and end up making a total balls of it. Then we spend decades trying to sort out the mess we made, often not very successfully.

There are signs that we are learning from our mistakes though.......so I remain optimistic that we can find proper long-term solutions to our problems.