Only when the last tree has died

Came across this Cree saying recently having seen it many years ago and it still stopped me in my tracks:

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

Incredibly profound.

What favourite eco related quotes motivate you?

Comments

[Mrs Green]

This is one of my favourites too. I love many of the native american proverbs. I'd like to share two of them if that's ok:

"We do not inherit the world from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."

and

"In our every deliberation we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations."

That last one blows your mind if you stop and think about it before every thought and action.

Wishing you a wonderful week,

Mrs G x

[Al]

Fab! Have heard both of those before but they are equally powerful and thought-provoking...

Here's hoping they all become less amazing and more 'every day reality'

Cheers

Al

[Nell Westwood]

Thoreau, the American philosopher, was a keen exponent of using wind and water power. In 1843 he wrote about wind power " here is an almost incalculable power at our disposal, yet how trifling the use we make of it! It only serves to turn a few mills, blow a few vessels across the ocean, and a few trivial ends besides. What a poor compliment do we pay to our indefatigable and energetic servant!"
I think he would have approved of wind farms!

My favourite Thoreau quote, though, is his admonition "I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes..." Very apt for these reusing, recycling times.

[Marla]

i just love these quotes they really make you stop and think...thanks for taking the time to note them down
marla
www.shappsandcoutts.com

[Al]

Great Thoreau quotes Nell...

[deborah k]

I'm a bit behind here I know, but I just thought I'd share something that resonates with me along these lines. It's a rather lengthy quote from a book called 'The Hidden Art of Homemaking' by Edith Schaeffer (Tyndale House Publishers, 1971)...

"People are not only spoiling nature and the earth, but they are also insulating themselves from it. They always have a building, a street, a car, a terrace paved with tile, or something in between themselves and the earth. Man was made to relate to the things in the earth, mineral as well as plant, oxygen as well as animal. However, although everything we find in 'civilization' has come from, or has been produced out of the raw materials existing in the earth, still it seems we have become more and more separated from the basic things of the earth...
Man does not have the same healthy refreshment for his nervous or his physical system if he never gets his feet on the earth, and his eyes, nostrils, ears, and taste buds free from the sights, sounds, flavours and smells of machine, concrete, exhaust and other non-natural things...
It is in nature, among the things which God has created, designed and brought forth Himself, that we are in the most natural atmosphere to be inspired."

This is what motivates me to look after the earth, and to get out and experience the natural environment - to get on my bike instead of cocooning myself in my car, to wear wool instead of acrylic, to turn off the light when I can and light a candle, to go for a walk on the beach instead of going to a gym, to sit in the sun and read a book instead of watching TV (in fact, I don't own a TV!), to spend my holidays in a country cottage going for walks in the bush rather than staying in a city hotel and spending my time shopping and consuming.

I reckon nature is not only worth protecting, but worth enjoying too!

[Nora Jones]

Yes, some of my favourite quotes appear in the messages above, especially the American Indian sayings. It makes me wonder how we strayed so far from these values and did not take them on board when we had the chance. Money has replaced the land and the earth as this society's most valuable possession. Very sad indeed.

[Banksy]

Here is one i find quite poignant and thought provoking, from one of the great philosophers of our time:

"Only when the last tree has been cut down and the last river has dried up will man realise that reciting red indian proverbs makes you sound like a fucking muppet."
— Banksy (Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall)

[Harry]

Banksy is a cynical, narcisistic twat, and the perfect poster-boy for a vapid and trite culture. Most of his art merely subverts the achievements of people with something more important to say (see his picture of the Mona Lisa). He is famous because he is admittedly witty, but mostly becasue to digest his cartoons is easy because the message is obvious and has been sent before, and because he hit upon the weeze of remaining anonymous behind his urban guerilla persona. He is anodyne and shallow. Like the commentator above me.

[Harry]

My mistake, he is a narcissistic twat.

[cree nation]

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

it should say "you"...the original cree speaker was intending to point out the destructive lifestyle of the western world; that is the true problem, not indigenous lifestyles.

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