What is needed now is a transformation of the major systems of production more profound than even the sweeping post-World War II changes in production technology.

In nature, no organic substance is synthesized unless there is provision for its degradation; recycling is enforced.

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

The methods that EPA introduced after 1970 to reduce air-pollutant emissions worked for a while, but over time have become progressively less effective.

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

Finally, since human beings are uniquely capable of producing materials not found in nature, environmental degradation may be due to the resultant intrusion into an ecosystem of a substance wholly foreign to it.

After all, despite the economic advantage to firms that employed child labor, it was in the social interest, as a national policy, to abolish it - removing that advantage for all firms.