You can only get really unpopular decisions through if the electorate is convinced of the value of the environment. That's what natural history programmes should be for.
quote by David Attenborough
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
In the old days... it was a basic, cardinal fact that producers didn't have opinions. When I was producing natural history programmes, I didn't use them as vehicles for my own opinion. They were factual programmes.
quote by David Attenborough
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance. Transit from the unpopular is easy... but from the popular to the unpopular is so steep and rugged that it is impossible to maintain it.
quote by William Lamb Melbourne
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My esoteric doctrine, is that if you entertain any doubt, it is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance. Transit from the unpopular, is easy... but from the popular to the unpopular is so steep and rugged that it is impossible to maintain it.
quote by Lord Melbourne
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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There's no wobble in Bush. If anything, the opposite. Right after hello, the next words out of his mouth are: I've never been more convinced that the decisions I made are the right decisions.
quote by Rich Lowry
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Bankers cannot afford to be concerned with only the economic aspects of projects. There may be serious implications on the natural environment, the urban environment, on human culture.
quote by Arthur Erickson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dear all poem lovers
Dear all
Thanks a lot to you for having chosen to read this. I know very well that as a poem lover, you will be a nature lover too. You will also appreciate that all of us need to turn environment-friendly for sustenance and continuance of our very existence.
This is not a poem or poetic impression, but a request to you to contribute your bit on the occasion of World Environment Day, which falls on 5th June 2010 (for that matter each year) .
This year let us observe, rather not celebrate, World Environment Day.
Let us resolve to restrict the use of all natural non-renewable resources, especially the fuel resource.
As a sequel to this resolution, let us undertake a walk for at least 15 minutes anytime between 8.00 am and 10.00 am on 5th June 2010, a Saturday. We will walk with a pinned up message as shown below
WALK
YOUR
WAY
TODAY
WORLD
ENVIRONMENT
DAY
on an A4 size paper on your front and back in your streets or roads demonstrating your concern for environment. You need not be in groups and there need not be any slogans, just a silent walk. I would even suggest that this be done when you leave home for market, for leaving children in school, for ATM, for that matter any walk with a defined destination and a planned purpose.
You demonstrate this to show that you will not miss opportunities to walk walkable distances and to cut short the consumption of oil resources. The other purpose you serve by the display is that you are reminding others also of the importance of World Environment Day.
You may enlarge your commitment, if possible, by not using your petrol or diesel driven vehicles during 8.00 am to 10.00 am on that day.
This is posted well in advance so that, if convinced with the idea, you may like to propagate the same, and bring in a lot of people in this silent way of observing World Environment.
Thanks.
poem by Bashyam Narayanan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I've Done My Job
'How did we arrive,
To get 'ourselves' into this situation? '
I thought you knew.
You were the one to convince me,
To follow you and not the others.
'This is true.
Now what do 'we' do?
It would make no sense,
To accuse or blame each other.
With no choices left,
To accept, reject or defend 'our' decisions.'
'Our' decisions?
Hey...
You convinced me to follow 'you'!
I've done my job.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
quote by Charles de Gaulle
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Defining History
DEFINING HISTORY *
History is neither for us nor against us;
It is a record of our accumulating past!
That past which we humans had once made,
And we can learn from our mistakes, it is often
said!
A wit had once put things together, saying; -
'History dose not repeat itself, only historians
repeat each other! ! '
'Civilization is a movement and not a condition,
a voyage, not a harbour, ' said Arnold Toynbee;
'It has the right and the capacity to choose its destiny! '
But many others did not seem to agree!
The early Mayans said that History repeats itself in
every 260 cyclic years,
History is not cyclic said Tonybee, to allay our fears!
The Greek Plato had felt that History was rather cynical;
While Oswald Spengler the German, had similar
views held!
Spengler said that all things that grow, must mature,
decay and decline;
The Western Civilization was no exception of any
kind!
But Carrol Quigley, a scientist by training, could not
accept any of the above views!
And in his 'The Evolution of Civilisation ', he pays
History its dues!
Quigley attempts to create an acceptable synthesis,
Which the critics praised with positive comments!
Quigley advocated that systems come into being
adapted to their environment;
Which changes and evolves with a gradual motion,
While he has laid down the seven stages of this
evolution! **
And he concludes by declaring with some flourish,
That those civilizations which cannot adapt to such
changes, -
Will one day perish!
- Raj Nandy
New Delhi
31 Aug 08
(* I tried to pay my tribute to three of our greatest Historians, -
being an old student of History. Spengler is unpopular in the
West.
** Mixture, Gestation, Expansion, Age of Conflict, Universal Empire,
Decay and Invasion.)
The jarring change going from an urban environment to an extremely remote natural environment is extremely inspiring. It's constantly stimulating, it's like a slap in the face.
quote by Carter Burwell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When elected officials abandon our environment and ruin our natural resources, public health is endangered. I know the importance of providing a clean environment for our children; I have attended more than one funeral for a child who has died from an asthma attack.
quote by Gwen Moore
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The heart of our relationship, this natural environment that has blessed us really all along the west coast of North America, on both sides of the border we've realized that this incredible natural wealth comes with a price.
quote by Dan Miller
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Praying That It Stays
There is nothing like witnessing to experience,
A people living in an environment who have been convinced...
Ignorance and subservience is theirs to defend.
With an advocating of it that will not see an end.
And praying that it stays to forever exist the way it is.
There is nothing like listening to a sermon delivered,
From a pulpit where a minister behind it sits...
After preaching to receive applause and lots of it.
To remind those who sat but now on their feet...
How remaining down to Earth to 'him' this pleases.
There is nothing like witnessing to experience,
A people living in an environment who have been convinced...
Ignorance and subservience is theirs to defend.
And many wishing to be 'Back Home' again.
To walk those rural roads bare foot to visit neighbors.
There is nothing like listening to a sermon delivered,
From a pulpit where a minister behind it sits...
After preaching to receive applause and lots of it.
To then drive away in a recently purchased Mercedes.
To live in comfort and tax free; rewarded for a job well done.
There is nothing like witnessing to experience,
A people living in an environment who have been convinced...
Ignorance and subservience is theirs to defend.
And the only thing that is wished,
Is that their children remember from where it is they came.
And proud they would be of them if they did the same.
'Why are you so critical of the people? '
~Oh...?
So what I observe is NOT accepted? ~
'It's the heritage and the culture,
They wish kept preserved.'
~I see.
How stupid of me to view it any other way.
And here I am thinking all of this,
Has no historic value to them that benefits.~
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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* * *
DO NO HARM.
Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you.
Do not lie.
Do not steal.
Do not cheat.
Do not falsely accuse others.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not commit incest.
Do not physically or verbally abuse others.
Do not murder.
Do not destroy the natural environment upon which all life depends.
DO GOOD.
Do to others what you would like them to do to you.
Be honest and fair.
Be generous.
Be faithful to your family and friends.
Take care of your children when they are young.
Take care of your parents when they are old.
Take care of those who cannot take care of themselves.
Be kind to strangers.
Respect all life.
Protect the natural environment upon which all life depends.
poem by Kent M. Keith from The Universal Moral Code (2003)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Man shapes himself through decisions that shape his environment.
quote by Rene Dubos
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A statement: children who watch violent TV programmes tend to be more violent when they grow up. But did the TV cause the violence, or do violent children preferentially enjoy watching violent programmes? Very likely both are true. Commercial defenders of TV violence argue that anyone can distinguish between television and reality. But Saturday morning children’s programmes now average 25 acts of violence per hour. At the very least this desensitizes young children to aggression and random cruelty. And if impressionable adults can have false memories implanted in their brains, what are we implanting in our children when we expose them to some 100,000 acts of violence before they graduate from elementary school?
Carl Sagan in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Submitted by Catalin Popescu
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You don't make spending decisions, investment decisions, hiring decisions, or whether-you're-going-to-look-for-a-job decisions when you don't know what's going to happen.
quote by Michael Bloomberg
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man's right to his body, or woman's right to her soul.
quote by Emma Goldman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Response Time Critical Disaster Relief
if we can learn anything from examples past
it must be mistakes tragedies will future occur
errors in actions decisions natural disasters
are inevitable therefore build on solid ground
plan to prevent minimize damage treat injuries
devote resources into recovery reconstruction
waste not precious aftermath time in censure
urgency demands immediate aid plan programmes
swift aid response times are paramount critical
injuries untreated rescue countdown time enemy
will depend on access expertise specialist teams
adequate clean water disease epidemic prevention
supply food clothes shelter rebuild infrastructures
prepare site civic community emergency aid stations
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Racial history is therefore natural history and the mysticism of the soul at one and the same time; but the history of the religion of the blood, conversely, is the great world story of the rise and downfall of peoples, their heroes and thinkers, their inventors and artists.
quote by Alfred Rosenberg
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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