"It’s sad when loved ones die, and few of us look forward to our own demise; hence the perennial quest for an elixir of eternal life, or at least a cure for cancer. But if nobody died, the planet would quickly fill with humans and empty of all the things that feed and provision us. Death clears space for new life; it is the non-negotiable price of admission to the great banquet of existence."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Activists from the United StatesNon-fiction authors from the United StatesEducators from the United StatesEnvironmentalists from the United StatesJournalists from Missouri
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"Why Understanding Limits Is the Key to Humanity’s Future". Republished in Resilience (19 January 2023).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Heinberg
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Richard Heinberg
22 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Richard Heinberg →
Related Quotes
"Our core ecological problem is not climate change. It is overshoot, of which global warming is a symptom. Overshoot i…"
"Using science, technology, and cheap energy, we expanded farmlands, chain-sawed forests, exploited fisheries, mined m…"
"During the last 200 years, per capita energy usage grew eight-fold, while human population expanded at about the same…"
"Prior to the widespread use of coal, oil, and natural gas, agrarian societies saw cyclical periods of rise and fall. …"
"Fossil fuels enabled a dramatic expansion of energy usable by humanity, in turn enabling unprecedented growth in huma…"
"Global human population has doubled three times in the past 200 years, surging from 1 billion in 1820 to 2 billion in…"
"Climate change is a wicked problem… [and] there is no way to solve it without sacrificing something that society curr…"
"Limits exist everywhere in nature. Physics, chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy—pick your field, dig into the lite…"
"Agriculture enabled population growth and social complexity, but it gradually robbed soils of nutrients. Sailing ship…"
"If we do nothing, we still get to a post-carbon future, but it will be bleak. However, if we plan the transition, we …"