Green Group discussion

"Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them" -
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead

(So keep up the good work, Lynnm.)

Jimmy wrote: ""Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead

(So keep up the good work, Lynnm.)"

That's one of my favorite quotes! Thanks for sharing.

And thanks - I'm trying. :-)

A quote from my favorite - despite his flaws - environmentalist: Edward Abbey.

“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell."

"If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength." - Rachel Carson

"Nature is not a place to visit. It is home."
― Gary Snyder

"Climate change is the single biggest thing that humans have ever done on this planet.

The one thing that needs to be bigger is our movement to stop it."

Bill McKibben

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” - John Muir

"What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"

Henry David Thoreau

“Why sit and stare at a box beaming messages indoctrinating us into consumer culture for hours a day when there are so many more enjoyable alternatives available?”

― Annie Leonard

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

― Carl Sagan, "Pale Blue Dot"

"Here is the truth: The Earth is round; Saddam Hussein did not attack us on 9/11; Elvis is dead; Obama was born in the United States; and the climate crisis is real."

- Al Gore

Not about the environment, but a nice sentiment given that it is New Year's Eve Day:

“Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”

― Brad Paisley

"When you're a kid, they'll tell you it's all ... Grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that's it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It's so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better."

- Doctor Who

“Now I see the secret of making the best person, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.”

-Walt Whitman

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."

–Cree proverb

In the 24 hours since this time yesterday, over 200,000 acres of rainforest have been destroyed in our world. Fully 13 million tons of toxic chemicals have been released into our environment. Over 45,000 people have died of starvation, 38,000 of them children. And more than 130 plant and animal species have been driven to extinction by the actions of humans. And all this since just yesterday."

- Thom Hartmann

"The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor."

- Voltaire

(Relates to our discussion on The Story of Stuff.)

"For I have learned / To look on Nature, not as in the hour / Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes / The still, sad music of humanity."

- Wordsworth

"Be who you are,
and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter,
and those who matter don't mind."

- Dr. Seuss

"Climate change is not just another issue. It is an issue that unchecked will swamp all other issues."

- Ross Gelbspan

"I love it when people say, 'Oh, he's an environmentalist.' What the hell does that mean? If it's someone who lives in their environment then all human beings are environmentalists."

- Wade Davis

"Nature does not hurry,
yet everything is accomplished"

- Lao Tzu

"For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream."

- Vincent Van Gogh

"Ultimately we have a moral responsibility to the most innocent victims of adverse climate change. Those who will suffer the most are the people who are the most innocent: the world's poorest citizens and those yet to be born. There is an ancient Native American saying: We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."

A few short decades later, we don't want our children to ask, "What were our parents thinking? Didn't they care about us?""

- Steven Chu (U.S. Energy Secretary)

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."

- Arthur C. Clarke

After just dealing with a blizzard here in Connecticut, this may be a bit tough, Mr. Thoreau. ;)

"Always maintain a kind of summer even in the middle of winter."

- Henry David Thoreau

Lynnm wrote: "After just dealing with a blizzard here in Connecticut, this may be a bit tough, Mr. Thoreau. ;)

"Always maintain a kind of summer even in the middle of winter."

- Henry David Thoreau"

Hope you survived the blizzard. I'm still digging out here in MA as well. 24" of snow swirled by the winds to 4 feet deep in spots. So much for the predictions of the Divination Rodent.

Sara, silly groundhog. Got it wrong...again.

Crazy storm. My nephew is in MA as well, and he said it took hours to clean off the driveway.

It took me forever just to clean the stairs, make a walkway to the driveway, and clean off the cars. But fortunately, I had help from a neighbor and his kids, and then finally the man who does my lawn in the summer came with a plow to do the rest.

We're New Englanders so we are used to snow, but that was a bit much.

Last time I remember that much snow at one time was the Blizzard of '78. I was at college in RI at the time. Didn't have to worry about the cleanup - just had fun. To be young again... :-)

Lynnm wrote: "Sara, silly groundhog. Got it wrong...again.

Crazy storm. My nephew is in MA as well, and he said it took hours to clean off the driveway.

It took me forever just to clean the stairs, make a wal..."

I know just what you mean. I still don't have all the snow off my deck, where it was 4 feet deep in spots. Gotta pace myself, LOL. Indeed, this was a bit much, even for us. :-) The Blizzard of '78 remains the standard by which I judge all storms. This was a doozy, but that one was definitely worse! I lived in MA then as well, and remember a driving ban that lasted for days instead of 24 hours. My condo association handled that clean up and did an outstanding job.

My heart goes out to those who still don't have power, which this time of year usually means no heat as well. We'll get through it. We always do. Hardy New Englanders, one and all.

I know - I feel so bad for people without power. Especially yesterday when the temperature went down to zero in the early morning hours in many places. Even today, when the temperature is higher, it would still be very cold inside.

Even when I was shovelling yesterday, I thought a couple times, at least we have power!

"The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

(I love trees!!!!!)

Lynnm wrote: ""The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

(I love trees!!!!!)"

Me too, Lynn. I have several as guides or allies in my shamanic work.

"But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Yes, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late."

- President Obama
State of the Union Address, 2013

And the Republicans sat with their collective thumbs up their collective asses.

Did any of the two response speakers (Marco Rubio or Rand Paul) mention climate change?

"Granting the frailty, and no doubt the impermanence, of modern technology as a human contrivance, the man who can keep a fire in a stove or on a hearth is not only more durable, but wiser, closer to the meaning of fire, than the man who can only work a thermostat."

--Wendell Berry in The Hidden Wound

"Certainly, by any standard, to haul garbage away is more virtuous than to manufacture it."

--Wendell Berry in The Hidden Wound

Jimmy wrote: "And the Republicans sat with their collective thumbs up their collective asses.

Did any of the two response speakers (Marco Rubio or Rand Paul) mention climate change?"

Eloquently put. :-) And true.

As for Rubio, this is what he had to say after his Republican response yesterday:

"The government can’t change the weather. I said that in the speech. We can pass a bunch of laws that will destroy our economy, but it isn’t going to change the weather."

The Republicans are making Rubio out as the next Obama - well, as far as I can see, he's stuck in the same old Republican policies that made them lose the election.

And he was one of the 22 Senators that said 'no' to the Violence Against Women Act.

"The Earth has music for those who listen."

- George Santayana

"We can not eat money and we can not drink oil"

-Crystal Lameman

"The mountains are calling and I must go."

- John Muir

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To say that the tar sands have little climate impact is an absurdity. The total carbon in tar sands exceeds that in all oil burned in human history."

- Dr. James Hansen

"Come forth into the light of things. Let nature be your teacher."

- Wordsworth

“Amid a world of noisy, shallow actors it is noble to stand aside and say, 'I will simply be.”

― Henry David Thoreau

"It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment."

- Ansel Adams

"Spring is nature's way of saying, Let's party!"

- Robin Williams

"The fact that we are developing an energy transition that is relying on a fuel, natural gas, about which we have incomplete information about its climate impacts should scare everybody."

- Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club

"I find a naturalistic understanding of human nature to be indispensable to leading a wise and mature life, and it is often exhilarating. Wisdom consists in appreciating the preciousness and finiteness of our own existence, and therefore not squandering it; of being cognizant of what makes people everywhere tick, and therefore enhancing happiness and minimizing suffering; of being alert to limitations and flaws in our own judgments and decisions and passions, and thereby doing our best to circumvent them. The exhilaration comes from understanding that we are a part of natural world; that deep mysteries can be explained; and that the world -- including our own mental lives -- can be intelligible, rather than a source of superstition and ignorance. Yes, mortality sucks, but given that it exists, I'd rather know that than be kept in a childlike state of delusion."--Steven Pinker

"Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place."

- Kurt Vonnegut

Nothing to do with the environment, but I love Kurt... :-)