Environmentalist

🇺🇸Henry David Thoreau

Literature

Western philosophy

1817–1862

"The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run."

🇺🇸Ansel Adams

Art

1902–1984

"The herculean task of a photographer is to capture a momentary frame as beautiful in reality, as it would be in a dream."

🇬🇧Jimmy Carter

Politics

1965–2024

"My name is Jimmy Carter, and I'm not running for president."

🇺🇸Harrison Ford

Entertainment

environmentalism

b. 1942

"The loss of anonymity is something that nobody can prepare you for. When it happened, I recognized that I'd lost one of the most valuable things in life. To this day, I'm not all that happy about it."

🇦🇹Fritjof Capra

Science

b. 1939

"One of the key insights of the systems approach has been the realization that the network is a pattern that is common to all life. Wherever we see life, we see networks."

🇺🇸Van Jones

Politics

b. 1968

"A green economy begins to replace some of the clunking and chugging of ugly machines with the wise effort of beautiful, skilled people. That means more jobs."

🇬🇧Arthur Uther Pendragon

Social Activism

b. 1954

"I do soundbites. Remember, I'm the druid that kicks arse — I'm not the druid that gets up there and waffles for 3 hours."

🇮🇳Anna Hazare

Social Activism

b. 1937

"How can the government stop anyone from protesting? The land is not their 'father's property'. The citizens are the masters of this country and the ministers are their servants."

🇸🇪Greta Thunberg

Social Activism

Fridays for Future

b. 2003

"We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself?"

🇰🇪Richard Leakey

Politics

humanism

1944–2022

"I'm known for speaking my mind, a trait I probably inherited from my parents, Louis and Mary Leakey—neither of whom was renowned for tact."

🇺🇸Hugh Iltis

Science

1925–2016

"The general biological ignorance bodes ill for democratic decisions on environmental issues."

🇨🇦Severn Cullis-Suzuki

Social Activism

environmentalism

b. 1979

"If you don’t know how to fix it, please, stop breaking it."

🇬🇧Joanna Haigh

Education

b. 1954

"Solar geoengineering, I’m afraid I think it’s a fool’s paradise, and I’ve been saying the same thing for many years."

🇺🇸James Howard Kunstler

Literature

New Urbanism

b. 1948

"Waterford began its existence as the gateway to the Erie Canal system, the first stretch of which was built to bypass several waterfalls on the Mohawk River."

🇺🇸Willie Nelson

Music

b. 1933

"Rather than trying to put an end to Eminem or some other rapper, politicians should think about why they're rapping. It's easier to try to censor some kid who's swearing about poverty than it is to stop the poverty."

🇦🇺Bill Mollison

Science

1928–2016

"Type 1 Error: When we settle into wilderness, we are in conflict with so many life forms that we have to destroy them to exist. Keep out of the bush. It is already in good order."

🇺🇸Rachel Carson

Literature

1907–1964

"RachelCarson.org The life and legacy of Rachel Carson"

🇺🇸Medea Benjamin

Politics

b. 1952

"Webinar today: From North Korea to Venezuela to Iran, US sanctions disproportionately impact women....Tune in today at 11 am ET"

🇺🇸Murray Bookchin

Literature

Anarchism

1921–2006

"The Inclusive Democracy project and Social Ecology by Takis Fotopoulos, The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, vol.1, no.3,"

🇺🇸Edward Abbey

Literature

green anarchism

1927–1989

"In a nation of sheep, one brave man forms a majority."

🇺🇸Derrick Jensen

Social Activism

radical environmentalism

1956–2017

"From the perspective of those who are entitled, the problems begin when those they despise do not go along with--and have the power and wherewithal to not go along with--the perceived entitlement."

🇺🇸William McDonough

Education

b. 1951

"If we think about things having multiple lives, cradle to cradle, we could design things that can go back to either nature or back to industry forever."

🇬🇧Helena Norberg-Hodge

Entertainment

b. 1946

"For our species to have a future, it must be local."

🇺🇸Rod Coronado

Music

b. 1966

"You're damn right when you say I've shown people how to make a firebomb, I've done my time for my crimes, and I should be able to talk about them."

🇺🇸David Korten

Literature

b. 1937

"I call the next system economy a “living” economy, because its underlying design principles come from our understanding of healthy living systems."

🇨🇦Elizabeth May

Politics

b. 1954

"“I was raised to be extremely productive,” May recalls. “That was how my mom would put it; she’d say, ‘I had a very productive day.’"

🇺🇸Barry Commoner

Science

1917–2012

"The peak of the campaign happened in Albuquerque, where a local reporter said to me, "Dr. Commoner, are you a serious candidate or are you just running on the issues?"

🇮🇳Vandana Shiva

Literature

b. 1952

"Biopiracy biological theft; illegal collection of indigenous plants by corporations who patent them for their own use."

🇯🇵Hayao Miyazaki

Art

b. 1941

"Life is a winking light in the darkness."

🇺🇸Alexandria Villaseñor

Social Activism

environmentalism

b. 2005

"Eighty years from now, our grandchildren can yell, 'Hey Zoomers."

"We are part of the ecosystem, although because we did not evolve as humans, I feel we are like an invasive species. The bottom line is that we take out of the ocean what we like, and throw in what we don’t want."