Book Displays: April 22 ~ Earth Day

Earth Day
April 22

The ultimate test of conscience may be a willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.

—Gaylord Nelson (1916-2005), former governor of Wisconsin, founder of Earth Day

We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do.
        —Barbara Ward (1914-1981), Only One Earth, 1972

Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.
        ― Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the reverse.
        ― Herman E. Daly (author of Steady State Economics, 1977)

When the last tree is cut and the last fish killed, the last river poisoned, then you will see that you can't eat money.
        ― Cree Indian Proverb, quoted by John May, The Greenpeace Story, 1991

When the well's dry, we know the worth of water.
        —Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Poor Richard's Almanac

What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
        ― Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Familiar Letters, 1894

The air, the water and the ground are free gifts to man and no one has the power to portion them out in parcels. Man must drink and breathe and walk and therefore each man has a right to his share of each.
        —James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), The Prairie, 1827

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.
        —Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), in EF Schumacher, Small is Beautiful, 1973

We will look upon the earth as being with us, not for us.
        —Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father,1973

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.
        ― Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

It is an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged.

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The real wealth of the Nation lies in the resources of the earth — soil, water, forests, minerals, and wildlife. To utilize them for present needs while insuring their preservation for future generations requires a delicately balanced and continuing program, based on the most extensive research. Their administration is not properly, and cannot be, a matter of politics.

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We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road — the one less traveled by — offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.

        ― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962