Science Authors

"Most energy analysts would accept the core of the “efficiency trap” argument, namely, that greater efficiency... does not automatically mean lower consumption. On the contrary, greater efficiency can lead – and has led – to bigger products... and therefore to overall energy use that is just as high, if not higher, than before. ...but he gets carried away with blaming poor old efficiency for a whole manner of ills..."

"New technologies will not liberate us. Even if they do materialize they will not reduce our consumption of resources. They will not reduce our demand for energy. They will not diminish our impacts on the climate. And they will not bring about a better world."

"It is too late to slow this runaway train down before it tumbles into the chasm."

"Cellular systems, ecosystems, and civilizations are, at base, thermodynamic systems. ...The system uses energy, eventually releasing it as useless heat. ...there is one vital difference between natural systems and human systems: natural systems receive a fixed energy input that never varies. If we could set a strict limit on energy use, we could build a human system that is just as stable as an ecosystem."

"What I'm proposing... is for governments to peel back support for large businesses, especially extractive industries. Instead, governments should support small businesses. ...inhibit oversized energy and agricultural systems and promote smaller, localized ones."

"Decentralization will prevent shocks from spreading throughout the system, like firebreaks in the forest."

"You can feed a family on a quarter-acre lot if it comes down to it."

"Fixed energy limits have not limited the progress of nature."

"We should stop subsidizing the fossil-fuel industries and instead provide subsidies for local and community energy projects."

"A society that supports a wealthy few at the expense of the larger population is unlikely to persist."

"...the environment is master. Societies and economies are utterly dependent upon it."

"Nothing can sustain a system that is in overshoot... Resiliance... is not the strength to hold back the tide, but the strength to bend without breading as the tide inevitably rushes in."

"Human systems always bring about their own demise... Natural systems... do not destroy themselves."

"The tragedy of the commons, explained by Garrett Hardin... shows how nonfunctional communities can rapidly destroy their own resource base. ...how good, rational people can form destructive communities. ...Instead of protecting their long-term future by conserving resources, they protect their short-term gains by competing, deplete their resources to the point of collapse, and bring about the failure of the community. ...again and again ..."

"I encourage people to look into the Transition Network."

"Millions are going to die of starvation and malnutrition... Food production will decline and food prices will rise when diesel (oil) and fertilizer (natural gas) become prohibitively expensive. The disastrous depletion of soil and water resources will become abundantly clear when we cannot afford to prop up production artificially."

"We don't know exactly when out fossil fuels will run out... but by the end of the century, our oil and natural gas supplies will be virtually non-existent, and limited coal supplies will be restricted to only a handful of countries. ...We are at the peak of a remarkable two-hundred-year glitch in the history of civilization and are about to embark on the descent. The coming changes will be earth-shattering."

"What farmers should aim for is... higher margins using fewer inputs on less land, and a system that is sustainable."

"We seem to have quite a few problems: global climate change, peak oil, overpopulation, collapsing fisheries, desertification, wealth inequality, species extinctions, freshwater shortages, hapless governments, deforestation, disease epidemics, and agricultural failures top the list. ...our civilizations have been in similar situations before ...a long list of civilizations from the Maya to the Romans all collapsed. The precedent is set..."

"America does not have to rely on vast volumes of oil and natural gas to make food. ...It has to get smarter. Dedicated, hard-working, ethical, and ingenious farmers ...show us it can be done. ...Another very promising trend in many countries is the reemergence of urban agriculture, community gardens, and backyard gardens."

"To combat the problems we face, we need to swim against the tide, and not only the main tide of environmentally blind industrialists, but also the secondary current of efficiency-blind environmentalists."

"Coral bleaching, the collapse of pine forests from bark beetle infestations, the destruction of Arctic habitat for animals... and the thawing of the Arctic permafrost are not future, theoretical impacts; they are disasters that we are watching unfold."

"Our government has been hijacked by big business."

"I find it hard to listen to fervent Republicans. Put the combined wisdom and honesty of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and a dozen others on the back of a postcard with a thick marker pen and you'll still have plenty of room for the address and stamp."

"In modern physics the essential stuff of the universe... exists as relationships and fluctuations... Indigenous science teaches that all that exists is an expression of relationships, alliances, and balances between what... we call energies, powers, or spirits."

"Several leading-edge thinkers in physics suggest that nature is... a flux of processes. The whole notion of flux and process is fundamental to the Indigenous sciences of... Algonkian-speaking peoples... all share a strongly verb-based family of languages that reflects this direct experience."

"In the act of simply being with another culture there comes the realization of a need for balance, the understanding that there are times when it is better to listen than to ask, better the feel than to think, more appropriate to stay with a silence than to seek answers in speech."

"Within the indigenous world the act of coming to know something involves a personal transformation. The knower and the known are indissolubly linked and changed in a fundamental way. ...it is a dynamic and living process, an aspect of the ever-changing, ever-renewing process of nature."

"Quantum theory stresses the irreducible link between observer and observed and the basic holism of all phenomena. Indigenous science also holds that there is no separation between the individual and society, between matter and spirit, between each one of us and the whole of nature."

"Each one of our thoughts changes the world in a tiny but subtle way. Multiply this by... the billions in the world, and human thought has an enormous impact."

"The mescal bead... is no mere symbol. For those who wear it, it really does enfold the universe and bring them into contact with all of creation."

"We must ask if.. structures and organizations continue to serve the purposes for which they were first created. Are they true to the spirit that once inspired them?"

"When the needed to make a decision they thought of the implications of the seventh generation to come after them. Today we must think... of peoples all over the world, rich or poor, industrialized or indigenous."

"Art and music make manifest, by bringing into conscious awareness, that which has previously been felt only tentatively and internally. Art, in its widest sense, is a form of play that lies at the origin of all making, of language, and of the mind's awareness of its place within the world. Art, in all its forms, makes manifest the spiritual dimension of the cosmos, and expresses our relationship to the natural world. This may have been the cause of that natural light which first illuminated the preconscious minds of early hominids."

"The persona can eventually become ourselves, or an aspect of ourselves, to the point where we don't know which is the mask and which is the I."

"Is there an objective aspect that remains constant through time? Or are we more like open systems or processes within the constant flow of life?"

"Science proceeds by abstracting what is essential from the accidental details of matter and process."

"The danger arises when a culture takes its own story as the absolute truth, and seeks to impose this truth on others as the yardstick of all knowledge and belief."

"Every point is a turning point."

"Gazing at those beautiful stars, Bailey realized that nothing mattered to them. All the achievements of humankind were insignificant. Love and hate, death and life, honor and dishonor, knowledge or ignorance—what did any of that matter in the face of this austere and heartless splendor?"

"Piero was the sort of person that every religion needs but no religion likes. Thoughtful, rational, scientific. He asked questions and did not accept the easy answers on faith."

"“Imaginary solutions work quite well, as long as you realize that problems are also imaginary.”"

"“Let it be. These things have a way of becoming clear over time,“ Gyro said. And then he shrugged. “Or not. In the end, it doesn’t really matter does it?”"

"Gyro smiled. “There’s an old pataphysical saying: ‘An adventure is only an inconvenience, rightly considered.’ Adventure is never convenient. And everything is an adventure, if you take the right perspective.” “So everything is inconvenient?” Bailey grumbled. “Oh, yes. That’s exactly it! Life is terribly inconvenient, which makes it quite entertaining.”"

"“You’ve passed the first test of leadership. You’ve disagreed with me.”"

"What do you do when you are falling? Do you reach out and try to grab for support? If you aren’t careful, you will pull others down with you. Unless you are very careful."

"“People always talk about human sacrifice as if it were an unusual and aberrant activity,” she said thoughtfully. “Over the centuries, it’s really been fairly common in a number of societies. Think about it. There’re a number of religions in the United States whose worship centers on a particular human sacrifice.” She glanced at me. “Jesus Christ on the cross,” I said slowly. “Certainly. Thousands of people consume Christ’s body and blood each Sunday.” “That’s different.” She shrugged. “Not really. Christ died long ago in a faraway place, and that might make it seem different. His worshipers claimed he was God incarnate, but the Aztecs claimed the same for the god-king they sacrificed. It happened only once, and that speaks for moderation on the part of the Christians, but that’s not a fundamental difference, just one of degree.”"

"“You may learn a few things,” she said. “And that’s always good.”"

"Do not look for revelations in the ancient ruins. You will find here only what you bring: bits of memory, wisps of the past as thin as clouds in the summer, fragments of stone that are carved with symbols that sometimes almost make sense."

"“Picture postcards never show the bugs,” I told her. “Stinging ants, wasps, fleas, roaches the size of your hand. Postcards never show the heat.”"