Perhaps one of the most meaningful ways to sense the impact of the environmental crisis is to confront the question which is always asked about Lake Erie: how can we restore it? I believe the only valid answer is that no one knows. For it should be clear that even if overnight all of the pollutants now pouring into Lake Erie were stopped, there would still remain the problem of the accumulated mass of pollutants in the lake bottom.

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

I see no reason to have my shirts ironed. It's irrational.

The modern assault on the environment began about 50 years ago, during and immediately after World War II.

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.

Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law; in journalism, literature and art.

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.