58 Quotes by Denis Hayes

When civilization stands at the edge of a cliff, a step forward doesn’t make much sense.

Earth Day gathered up those strands, and dozens more, and knitted them together in the public consciousness as “environmental” issues. The nation was pretty startled when 20 million people hit the streets. Congress, which had adjourned for the day to go back to its districts, was blown away.

An acre of windy prairie could produce between $4,000 and 10,000 worth of electricity per year – which is far more than the value of the land’s crop of corn or wheat.

It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.

Asbestos, EMFs, and CFCs have given us a degree of humility. When yesterday’s “triumph of modern chemistry” turns out instead to be today’s deadly threat to the global environment, it is legitimate to ask what else we don’t know.

Under communism, prices were not allowed to reflect economic reality. Under capitalism, prices don’t reflect ecological reality. In the long run, the capitalist flaw – if uncorrected – may prove to be the more catastrophic.

We got everyone’s attention, but we didn’t solve any environmental problems.

America has the technology and resources to meet all its energy needs while safeguarding the earth’s climate. The urgent question now is, ‘Do we have the will?’ At least one city does, and I’m proud to live in it.

There really wasn’t an environmental movement 30 years ago. The Sierra Club national office in 1969 consisted of one full-time volunteer.