One way or another, the choice will be made by our generation, but it will affect life on earth for all generations to come

A sustainable economy represents nothing less than a higher social order one as concerned with future generations as with our own, and more focused on the health of the planet and the poor than on material acquisitions and military might. While it is a fundamentally new endeavor, with many uncertainties, it is far less risky than continuing with business as usual.

Population growth is exceeding farmers' ability to keep up...Our oldest enemy, hunger, is again at the door.

Today, more than ever, we need political leaders who can see the big picture, who understand the relationship between the economy and its environmental support systems.

Children whose developing lungs are particularly vulnerable suffer the most from air pollution. For children, breathing the air in cities with the worst pollution, such as Beijing, Calcutta, Mexico City, Shanghai, and Tehran, is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.

Nations are in effect ceding portions of their sovereignty to the international community and beginning to create a new system of international environmental governance.

It takes 1,000 tons of water to produce 1 ton of grain. As water becomes scarce and countries are forced to divert irrigation water to cities and industry, they will import more grain. As they do so, water scarcity will be transmitted across national borders via the grain trade. Aquifer depletion is a largely invisible threat, but that does not make it any less real.