Here are my top favourite quotes about the climate crisis. If you have any better ones, please send them to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Ambition
“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” John F. Kennedy, 1961
A clear call to action. How good would it be if an American President said:
“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of cutting our carbon footprint to zero, and help other countries to follow suit.”
Climate Change Action
“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.” Barack Obama, Former US President
“I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire.” Greta Thunberg, Age 17, Swedish Activist
“Stop burning stuff”. Dave Pearson, Star Renewables
“Don’t be distracted by the myth that ‘every little helps.’ If everyone does a little, we’ll achieve only a little. We must do a lot. What’s required are big changes.” David MacKay, Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air
Climate change is a really serious issue with short and long-term consequences that are steadily getting worse. We need to act as if we are in an emergency, like we did with the Covid-19 epidemic. Whilst ‘every little’ does help, we really need to make big changes. For example, installing a heat pump at home is much more impactful than recycling more of our rubbish.
Vested interests
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” Upton Sinclair 1878–1968
“We’ll go down in history as the first society that wouldn’t save itself because it wasn’t cost effective”. Kurt Vonnegut, American writer
“It’s not climate change that needs to be tackled. It is the political power of the fossil fuel industry.” Richard Denniss, Chief Economist, The Australian Institute
Vested interests are where someone, or an organisation, has a personal financial reason for their interest or involvement in something. The tobacco industry fought for years against restrictions on smoking; now oil companies are fighting against action to restrict fossil fuel usage. Try having a reasonable discussion with a beef or dairy farmer about the methane emissions from cattle – it’s not easy.
Perhaps this isn’t surprising - if your salary, career, and livelihood depend on the status quo. Why would you accept change? Sometimes we can collaborate with vested interests to adopt change slowly; but sometimes we need to get on with necessary changes through new regulations. In these cases, we can offer other (financial) support. An example is paying fishermen to decommission boats to prevent overfishing, or funding oil and gas workers to retrain.
Science
“Ye Cannae Change the Laws of Physics.” Scotty, Chief Engineer, Star Trek
The laws of physics, chemistry and biology are facts. Add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and the temperature goes up. Higher temperatures result in more evaporation; which leads to more droughts, but also more potential for torrential rain and flooding. Higher temperatures melt ice, which raises sea-level and reduces solar radiation reflected to space. These changes will destroy most coral reefs and much of the Amazon rainforest, which will lead to more carbon dioxide being released to the atmosphere………
“Listen to the scientists,” Greta Thunberg to the US Congress, 2019
Greenwashing
“100% sustainable aviation fuel”, Virgin Atlantic
This was a quote from Virgin Atlantic referring to a test flight across the Atlantic despite the lack of any significant supply of sustainable aviation fuel, and regulations which prohibit more than 50% sustainable aviation fuel in commercial jet engines. Also the best estimate is that sustainable aviation fuel can cut carbon emissions by ‘up to 70%’. Some ‘sustainable’ fuel comes from oil palm plantations which could encourage further deforestation of tropical forests.
“We should put carbon capture – directly removing carbon as well as capturing it at source – at the centre of the battle.” Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister
The top priority, and the cheapest solution, is to cut our carbon emissions by all available means. Carbon capture is an energy intensive ‘bolt-on’ process with no additional benefit beyond reducing carbon in the atmosphere in an expensive way. Carbon capture should not be ‘at the centre of the battle,’ it should be a mopping up operation after the battle has been won.
Long term Thinking
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” Chinese proverb
or
“The best time to cut carbon emissions was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.”
There is little point in worrying about the past as you can't change it. But you can act now, and will benefit from it, perhaps in 20 years’ time.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” Native American Proverb
or
“Your grandchildren will not understand why you did not act earlier.” Neil Kitching, Carbon Choices climate blogs.
I’d be interested in your favourite quotes. Please share any with me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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Carbon Choices
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