We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.

Recycling is a good thing to do. It makes people feel good to do it. The thing I want to emphasize is the vast difference between recycling for the purpose of feeling good and recycling for the purpose of solving the trash problem.

For that reason the simple test of the slogan 'Consume Less' as a basis for social action on the environment would be to tell it to the blacks in the ghetto. The message will not be very well received for there are many people in this country who consume less than is needed to sustain a decent life.

The environmental crisis is a global problem, and only global action will resolve it.

Despite the dazzling successes of modern technology and the unprecedented power of modern military systems, they suffer from a common and catastrophic fault. While providing us with a bountiful supply of food, with great industrial plants, with high-speed transportation, and with military weapons of unprecedented power, they threaten our very survival.

The modern technologist is less 'sorcerer' and more 'sorcerer's apprentice'.

Earth Day 1970 was irrefutable evidence that the American people understood the environmental threat and wanted action to resolve it.