The proper use of science is not to conquer nature but to live in it.

World War II had a very important impact on the development of technology, as a whole.

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

Perhaps the simplest example is a synthetic plastic, which unlike natural materials, is not degraded by biological decay. It therefore persists as rubbish or is burned-in both cases causing pollution. In the same way, a substance such as DDT or lead, which plays no role in the chemistry of life and interferes with the actions of substances that do, is bound to cause ecological damage if sufficiently concentrated.

Everything is connected to everything else. Everything must go somewhere. Nature knows best. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

In general, any productive activity which introduces substances foreign to the natural environment runs a considerable risk of polluting it.

The environmental crisis is somber evidence of an insidious fraud hidden in the vaunted productivity and wealth of modern, technology-based society. This wealth has been gained by rapid short-term exploitation of the environmental system, but it has blindly accumulated a debt to nature-a debt so large and so pervasive that in the next generation it may, if unpaid, wipe out most of the wealth it has gained us.