David R. Brower quotes

The more we pour the big machines, the fuel, the pesticides, the herbicides, the fertilizer and chemicals into farming, the more we knock out the mechanism that made it all work in the first place. (David R. Brower)
Bring diversity back to agriculture. That's what made it work in the first place. View quote
David R. Brower
It seems that every time mankind is given a lot of energy, we go out and wreck something with it. View quote
David R. Brower
Is the minor convenience of allowing the present generation the luxury of doubling its energy consumption every 10 years worth the major hazard of exposing the next 20,000 generations to this lethal waste? View quote
David R. Brower
All I know about thermal pollution is that if we continue our present rate of growth in electrical energy consumption it will simply take, by the year 2000, all our freshwater streams to cool the generators and reactors. View quote
David R. Brower
It is absolutely imperative that we protect, preserve and pass on this genetic heritage for man and every other living thing in as good a condition as we received it. View quote
David R. Brower
There is no place where we can safely store worn-out reactors or their garbage. No place! View quote
David R. Brower
I began working with the John Muir Institute and then started helping found Friends of the Earth organizations here and there in other countries. That pretty well brings us up to the present. View quote
David R. Brower
Apollo 13, as you may remember, gave us a reactor that is bubbling away right now somewhere in the Pacific. It's supposed to be bubbling away on the moon, but it's in the Pacific Ocean instead. View quote
David R. Brower
It's like turning the space program over to the Long Island Railroad. View quote
David R. Brower
Understanding how DNA transmits all it knows about cancer, physics, dreaming and love will keep man searching for some time. (David R. Brower)
Some otherwise sane scientists have seriously proposed that we tuck this deadly garbage under the edges of drifting continents but how can they be sure the moving land masses will climb over the waste and not just push it forward? View quote
David R. Brower
For how many people do you think might yet stand on this planet before the sun grows cold? That's the responsibility we hold in our hands. View quote
David R. Brower
The risk presented by these lethal wastes is like no other risk, and we should not be expected to accept it or to project it into the future in order for manufacturers and utilities to make a dollar killing now. View quote
David R. Brower
A great deal of pressure was then built up to remove me from the club and my resignation was, finally, a forced one. View quote
David R. Brower
At that time a senator who was on the Joint Committee of Atomic Energy said rather quietly, 'You know, we're having a little problem with waste these days.' I didn't know what he meant then, but I know now. View quote
David R. Brower
The Sierra Club is a very good and a very powerful force for conservation and, as a matter of fact, has grown faster since I left than it was growing while I was there! It must be doing something right. View quote
David R. Brower
Until four years ago, in fact, I was absolutely in love with the atom. View quote
David R. Brower
I was actually telling people that - by harnessing the atom - we could enter a new era of unlimited power that would do away with the need to dam our beautiful streams. View quote
David R. Brower
Once we open the door to the plutonium economy, we expose ourselves to absolutely terrible, horrifying risks from these people. View quote
David R. Brower
'Realistic' is a loaded word for me. Anyone who uses the word 'realistic' is all bad. (David R. Brower)
I believe that the average guy in the street will give up a great deal, if he really understands the cost of not giving it up. In fact, we may find that, while we're drastically cutting our energy consumption, we're actually raising our standard of living. View quote
David R. Brower
Perhaps most ridiculous of all is the suggestion that we 'keep' our radioactive garbage for the use of our descendants. This 'solution', I think, requires an immediate poll of the next 20,000 generations. View quote
David R. Brower
Yet another proposal would have us rocket the waste into the sun, but, as you're probably aware, about one in ten of our space shots doesn't quite make it out of the earth's gravitational field. View quote
David R. Brower
I sort of kept my hand in writing and went to work for the Sierra Club in '52, walked the plank there in '69, founded Friends of the Earth and the League of Conservation Voters after that. View quote
David R. Brower