I started out in nuclear physics. But after I became more sensitized to the environmental and health implications of the nuclear system - I was being trained to be the first women in the fast-breeder reactor in India (and was in it when it first went critical) - I didn't feel comfortable with it. So I went into theoretical physics.
Vandana ShivaNature has gifted this rich biological diversity to us. We will not allow it to become the monopoly of a handful of corporations. We will keep it as the basis of our wealth and our sustenance.
Vandana ShivaNature has given us this for free, it was meant to sustain us, we will not allow it to become a monopoly to finance the Imperial Army.
Vandana ShivaWhen the forest is destroyed, when the river is dammed, when the biodiversity is stolen, when fields are waterlogged or turned saline because of economic activities, it is a question of survival for these people. So our environmental movements have been justice movements.
Vandana ShivaItยs not that Monsanto is making money out of the blue. Itยs making money by coercing and literally forcing people to pay for what was free. Take water, for instance. Water has always been free. Weยve never paid for drinking water. The World Bank says the reason water has been misused is because it was never commercially priced. But the reason itยs been misused is because it was wasted by the big usersยindustry, which polluted it.
Vandana ShivaThe people who see the population explosion in the Malthusian way - as a geometric progression - forget that population growth is not a biological issue. People are not increasing in numbers out of stupidity and ignorance. Population growth is an ecological phenomenon linked very intimately to other issues, such as the usurpation of the resources which allow people to live.
Vandana Shiva