For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it.
Interpretation
Humans have historically battled against nature, but now must learn to protect it for survival.
This quote by Jacques Yves Cousteau emphasizes the shift in humanity's relationship with nature. Historically, humans often exploited natural resources and fought against nature's elements for survival. However, as we enter a new era, Cousteau suggests that true survival now hinges on our understanding of the necessity to protect and preserve the natural world. This call to action underlines the importance of sustainability and coexistence, reflecting a profound acknowledgment of our dependence on the environment.
In practice
This quote can be used in an environmental awareness campaign to emphasize the importance of conservation.
We must alert and organise the world's people to pressure world leaders to take specific steps to solve the two root causes of our environmental crises - exploding population growth and wasteful consumption of irreplaceable resources. Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today.
No aquarium, no tank in a marine land, however spacious it may be, can begin to duplicate the conditions of the sea. And no dolphin who inhabits one of those aquariums or one of those marine lands can be considered normal.
It's terrible to have to say this. World population must be stabilized and to do that we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. This is so horrible to contemplate that we shouldn't even say it. But the general situation in which we are involved is lamentable.
The impossible missions are the only ones which succeed.
The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.
The best way to observe a fish is to become a fish.
It is the abiding concern of thinking people to preserve what keeps men human-to save our contact with nature of which we are a part.
We the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency-a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential...the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising...Indeed, without realizing it, we have begun to wage war on earth itself.
The Fur Company may be called the exterminating medium of these wild and almost uninhabitable regions, which cupidity or the love of money alone would induce man to venture into. Where can I now go and find nature undisturbed?
What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.
Harry looked down and saw deep green mountains and lakes, coppery in the sunset.
... it is not a crisis of our environs or surroundings; it is a crisis of our lives as individuals, as family members, as community members, and as citizens. We have an 'environmental crisis' because we have consented to an economy in which by eating, drinking, working, resting, traveling, and enjoying ourselves we are destroying the natural, god-given world.
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