Copenhagen is not the end.
Copenhagen is the beginning of a new journey.
We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying.
If we follow business-as-usual then we will commit future generations to dangerous climate change,
and if we exploit unconventional fossil fuels we could return the Earth to a hot state it hasn't seen since 55
million years ago.
Gulf states like the Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia... are agressively puring billions of dollars made in the
oil fields into new green technologies.
Man is a complex being; he makes the deserts bloom and lakes die.
We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles,
rather than by the quality of our service relationship to humanity.
It's very important to understand that climate change is not just another issue in
this complicated world of proliferating issues. Climate change is THE issue which, unchecked,
will swamp all other issues.
This is a beautiful planet and not at all fragile.
Earth can withstand significant volcanic eruptions, tectonic cataclysms, and ice ages.
But this canny, intelligent, prolific, and extremely self-centered human creature has proven himself
capable of more destruction of life than Mother Nature herself... We've got to be stopped.
Considering the whole span of earthly time... Only within the moment of time represented by the present century
has one species – man – acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.
Eventually we'll realize that if we destroy the ecosystem, we destroy ourselves.
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.
The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for
future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon him not understanding.
Your descendants shall gather your fruits.
Only when I saw the Earth from space, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility,
did I realize that humankind's most urgent task is to cherish and preserve it for future generations.
It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish.
Climate change is for real. We have just a small window of opportunity and
it is closing rather rapidly. There is not a moment to lose.
Today we're seeing that climate change is about more than a few unseasonably mild winters or
hot summers. It's about the chain of natural catastrophes and devastating weather patterns
that global warming is beginning to set off around the world.. the frequency and intensity of
which are breaking records thousands of years old.
It is our collective and individual responsibility to protect and nurture the global family,
to support its weaker members and to preserve and tend to the environment in which we all live.
Pollution should never be the price of prosperity.
We know the science, we see the threat, and we know the time for action is now.
People tend to focus on the here and now. The problem is that, once global warming is
something that most people can feel in the course of their daily lives, it will be too
late to prevent much larger, potentially catastrophic changes.
The future of mankind can be assured only if we rediscover ways in which to live as a part of nature, not apart from her.
Beauty dies where litter lies.
I am sympathetic to developing countries’ concerns:
because of our emissions it’s their crops that will disappear;
because of our inaction, it’s their fields that turn to desert.
The paleoclimate record shouts to us that, far from being self-stabilizing,
the Earth's climate system is an ornery beast which overreacts even to small nudges.
Some sort of carbon tax will have to be charged, when people use carbon-based fuels.
It won't happen tomorrow, I won't be around to see it
but maybe in ten or twenty years. These will be interesting times.
We are working on making prototypes of capturing devices but we need millions of them. In order to make and test them, it will take between 10-20 years but the clock is ticking. Gradually all of the CO2 goes into the ocean.
We need to come up with a technical solution. This is a major issue and we need to face it now.
