Top 50 Barry Commoner Quotes

As the earth spins through space, a view from above the North Pole would encompass most of the wealth of the world – most of its food, productive machines, doctors, engineers and teachers. A view from the opposite pole would encompass most of the world’s poor.

My entry into the environmental arena was through the issue that so dramatically – and destructively – demonstrates the link between science and social action: nuclear weapons.

The most meaningful engine of change, powerful enough to confront corporate power, may be not so much environmental quality, as the economic development and growth associated with the effort to improve it.

The methods that EPA introduced after 1970 to reduce air-pollutant emissions worked for a while, but over time have become progressively less effective.

It reflects a prevailing myth that production technology is no more amenable to human judgment or social interests than the laws of thermodynamics, atomic structure or biological inheritance.

As the earth spins through space, a view from above the North Pole would encompass most of the wealth of the world – most of its food, productive machines, doctors, engineers and teachers. A view from the opposite pole would encompass most of the world’s poor.

The real abhorrent consequence of the invention of atomic bombs is the fact that we still have them and they’re spreading.

The weapons were conceived and created by a small band of physicists and chemists; they remain a cataclysmic threat to the whole of human society and the natural environment.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

The age of innocent faith in science and technology may be over.

The major source of photochemical smog – petroleum-fueled vehicles – can be replaced by emission-free electric vehicles.

The AEC scientists were so narrowly focused on arming the United States for nuclear war that they failed to perceive facts – even widely known ones – that were outside their limited field of vision.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

By adopting the control strategy, the nation‘s environmental program has created a built-in antagonism between environmental quality and economic growth.

My entry into the environmental arena was through the issue that so dramatically – and destructively – demonstrates the link between science and social action: nuclear weapons.

The environmental crisis is a global problem, and only global action will resolve it.

By adopting the control strategy, the nation‘s environmental program has created a built-in antagonism between environmental quality and economic growth.

The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else.

The AEC scientists were so narrowly focused on arming the United States for nuclear war that they failed to perceive facts – even widely known ones – that were outside their limited field of vision.

If you ask what you are going to do about global warming, the only rational answer is to change the way in which we do transportation, energy production, agriculture and a good deal of manufacturing. The problem originates in human activity in the form of the production of goods.

Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law; in journalism, literature and art.

Nothing ever goes away.

If you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, you are looking the wrong way.

Environmental quality was drastically improved while economic activity grew by the simple expedient of removing lead from gasoline – which prevented it from entering the environment.

What is new is that environmentalism intensely illuminates the need to confront the corporate domain at its most powerful and guarded point – the exclusive right to govern the systems of production.

After all, despite the economic advantage to firms that employed child labor, it was in the social interest, as a national policy, to abolish it – removing that advantage for all firms.

The major source of photochemical smog – petroleum-fueled vehicles – can be replaced by emission-free electric vehicles.

The methods that EPA introduced after 1970 to reduce air-pollutant emissions worked for a while, but over time have become progressively less effective.

The AEC had at its command an army of highly skilled scientists.

Seen that way, the wholesale transformation of production technologies that is mandated by pollution prevention creates a new surge of economic development.

What is needed now is a transformation of the major systems of production more profound than even the sweeping post-World War II changes in production technology.

The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else.

When you fully understand the situation, it is worse than you think.

I don’t believe in environmentalism as the solution to anything. What I believe is that environmentalism illuminates the things that need to be done to solve all of the problems together.

It is simply economically impossible to require controls that even approach zero emissions.

The age of innocent faith in science and technology may be over.

Earth Day 1970 was irrefutable evidence that the American people understood the environmental threat and wanted action to resolve it.

No action is without its side effects.

The wave of new productive enterprises would provide opportunities to remedy the unjust distribution of environmental hazards among economic classes and racial and ethnic communities.

All of the clean technologies are known, it’s a question of simply applying them.

What is needed now is a transformation of the major systems of production more profound than even the sweeping post-World War II changes in production technology.

Earth Day 1970 was irrefutable evidence that the American people understood the environmental threat and wanted action to resolve it.

Seen that way, the wholesale transformation of production technologies that is mandated by pollution prevention creates a new surge of economic development.

I see no reason to have my shirts ironed. It’s irrational.

Nothing ever goes away.

The environmental crisis arises from a fundamental fault: our systems of production – in industry, agriculture, energy and transportation – essential as they are, make people sick and die.

No action is without its side effects.

The most meaningful engine of change, powerful enough to confront corporate power, may be not so much environmental quality, as the economic development and growth associated with the effort to improve it.

I don’t believe in environmentalism as the solution to anything. What I believe is that environmentalism illuminates the things that need to be done to solve all of the problems together.

What is new is that environmentalism intensely illuminates the need to confront the corporate domain at its most powerful and guarded point – the exclusive right to govern the systems of production.