‘Tree-hugger’ is another name for an environmentalist.
“Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar.” -Bradley Millar
“I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers.” -Steven Wright (Steven Alexander Wright (born 1955))
“Everybody wants to save the Earth; nobody wants to help Mom with the dishes.” -P. J. O’Rourke
Kindness to Animals
Speak gently to the herring and kindly to the calf,
Be blithesome with the bunny, at barnacles don’t laugh!
Give nuts unto the monkey, and buns unto the bear,
Ne’er hint at currant jelly if you chance to see a hare!
Oh, little girls, pray hide your combs when tortoises draw nigh,
And never in the hearing of a pigeon whisper Pie!
But give the stranded jelly-fish a shove into the sea, -
Be always kind to animals wherever you may be!
Oh, make not game of sparrows, nor faces at the ram,
And ne’er allude to mint sauce when calling on a lamb.
Don’t beard the thoughtful oyster, don’t dare the cod to crimp,
Don’t cheat the pike, or ever try to pot the playful shrimp.
Tread lightly on the turning worm, don’t bruise the butterfly,
Don’t ridicule the wry-neck, nor sneer at salmon-fry;
Oh, ne’er delight to make dogs fight, nor bantams disagree, -
Be always kind to animals wherever you may be!
Be lenient with lobsters, and ever kind to crabs,
And be not disrespectful to cuttle-fish or dabs;
Chase not the Cochin-China, chaff not the ox obese,
And babble not of feather-beds in company with geese.
Be tender with the tadpole, and let the limpet thrive,
Be merciful to mussels, don’t skin your eels alive;
When talking to a turtle don’t mention calipee-
Be always kind to animals wherever you may be.
by J. Ashby-Sterry
“And all young people are concerned environmentalists, but no one is interested in keeping the schoolyard clean!” -David McKay
“I am I plus my surroundings, and if I do not preserve the latter, I do not preserve myself.” -José Ortega y Gasset (1883 - 1955): “Meditations of Quixote” (1911)
“For the first time in history, one bag of groceries produces two bags of trash.” -Robert Orben (born 1927)
“We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace.” -Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965): “The Philosophy of Civilization” (1951)
“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.” -Jack Handey (born 1949)
“People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it’s safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.” -Author Unknown
“It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.” -Henrik Ibsen (Henrik Johan ‘Henrik’ Ibsen (1828 - 1906))
“The environment is everything that isn’t me.” -Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
“Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of the birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird song.” -Rachel Carson (1907 - 1964): “Silent Spring” (27 September 1962)
“Remember, people, if you were meant to have a fur coat, nature would have given you one. Do not be a thief and steal a fur coat from some animal who is its rightful owner.” -Author Unknown
When is Earth Day? Earth Day is observed by environmental activists on 22 April of each year. If you are a regular person and not an environmental activist, Earth Day is every day.
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” -Doctor Seuss (pseudonym of Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904 - 1991)): “The Lorax” (1971)
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster region has become one of the world’s most unique wildlife sanctuaries, with thriving populations of wolves, deer, beavers, eagles, fish, and other animals.
“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.” - Jacques Cousteau (Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910 - 1997))
“The basis of all animal rights should be the Golden Rule: we should treat them as we would wish them to treat us, were any other species in our dominant position.” -Christine Stevens
“Strip mining prevents forest fires.” -Author Unknown
Ninety-nine percent of all animal species that ever lived on Earth are now extinct - not because of human activity, but because every species has a ‘life cycle.’ Every species appears on the planet, goes through some changes, and then eventually dies out. This is part of the natural ‘cycle of life.’ By some estimates, animal species average about five million years of existence. Everything that begins also ends.
“No one in the world needs a mink coat but a mink.” -Murray Banks
“Our priorities are out of whack. We spend too much to protect birds and fish at the expense of people.” -Sam Graves
Wrong-Way Alien
A curious creature from Saturn
Came to Earth on some orbital pattern.
It saw our brown air,
And cement everywhere,
And screamed, “Why did I take that turn?!”
by Author Unknown
Each year, the United States of America produces enough plastic wrap to shrink-wrap the entire state of Texas. Are you thinking what we’re thinking? Let’s do it!
What should you do if you discover an endangered animal that eats only endangered plants?
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was formed in 1866. It is a long-standing organization, unlike the here-today-and-gone-tomorrow groups of obnoxious hip young attention seekers who hold noisy protest demonstrations in front of shopping malls and on street corners. Additionally, the ASPCA has fantastic pet toys so that you and your furry friend can play together. The ASPCA website is www.aspca.org.
Thames in Flames
In England, when crossing the Thames,
It sparkles and shimmers, like James.
It’s even reputed
To be unpolluted,
Though in places it bursts into flames!
by Author Unknown
“No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.” -Garrett Hardin: as quoted in “The Ecologist” (February 1974)
Animal Rights Activist: Ma’am, do you realize some poor dumb beast suffered horribly so that you could wear that mink coat you have on?
Woman: How dare you talk that way about my husband!
“(Henry Bergh) was a notable defender of animals, and was the founder, in 1866, of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. This was the first humane society in the United States, antedating - a strange commentary - the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, founded by another Fifth Avenue resident, Elbridge T. Gerry, in 1874. Bergh was originally outraged by the treatment of horses on New York’s streets, especially the overworked beasts that pulled the omnibuses and stages.” -Jerry E. Patterson: “Fifth Avenue: The Best Address” (1998)
“With everything we read about spray cans and the ozone layer, it’s enough to scareosol to death.” -Author Unknown
Modern technology
Owes ecology
An apology.
-Alan M. Eddison: as quoted in Rosemary McDougall: “Worse Verse” (1969)
“The whale is endangered, while the ant continues to do just fine.” -Burton Hillis (pseudonym of William Edward ‘Bill’ Vaughan (1915 - 1977))
“Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees.” -Author Unknown: “The Bible,” ‘Book of Revelation,’ chapter 7, verse 3
“To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.” -Wendell Berry (Wendell Erdman Berry (born 1934))
The worst air polluter in the entire state of Washington is a volcano that goes by the name of Mount Saint Helens.
“A zoo is a facility where animals are imprisoned for the crime of being different from us.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“Nobody knows the exact age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better.” -Author Unknown
America the Beautiful
O beautiful for smoggy skies
Insecticided grains
For strip-mined mountains, majesty
Above the asphalt plain.
America, America,
Man sheds his waste on thee
And hides the pines
With billboard signs
From sea to oily sea!
by George Carlin (George Denis Patrick Carlin (1937 - 2008))
“We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” -Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804)
“Each generation takes the Earth as trustees. We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and orchards as we have exhausted and consumed.” -J. Sterling Morton
Little Timmy, age five, was looking at a picture book. When he came to a picture of a zebra, his father asked him what animal that was. Timmy thought a moment, and then answered, “It’s a cow that ate bio-engineered corn.”
“Pollution: The dirtiest word in the world.” -Author Unknown
This animal is very bad:
When attacked, it defends itself.
-Theodore P. K.
China produces more than 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks every year, using an estimated 25 million trees to do so. Hmmm . . . kinda makes reusable chopsticks seem like a good alternative, perhaps?
“Love thy neighbor, whether thy neighbor is a fuzzy bunny or a chirping chickadee or a grandpa who wears stripes with plaids.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“I personally can see no reason for conceding mind to my fellow men and denying it to animals . . . I at least cannot doubt that the interests and activities of animals are correlated with awareness and feeling in the same way as my own and which may be for aught I know just as vivid.” -Walter Russel (Lord Brain)
A Robin Redbreast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.
-William Blake (1757 - 1827): ‘Auguries of Innocence’ (1803), lines 5 and 6; type of work: poem
“He that plants trees loves others besides himself.” -Thomas Fuller (1654 - 1734)
It turns out that everything is actually everything else, just recycled. Matter becomes energy, and energy becomes matter, and so on. Nothing is ever destroyed, it just changes form. The Universe is a giant recycling system.
“Save a tree. Eat a beaver.” -Author Unknown
The Green Thing
In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags were not good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.” The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment.” He was right - our generation did not have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles and soda bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day. We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day. Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day. Back then, we had one television, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And, the television had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then. Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But isn’t it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then? Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from an opinionated young person.
by Author Unknown
Most landfilled trash retains its original weight, volume, and form for 40 years or longer.
“Save the krill. Eat a whale.” -Author Unknown
“Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed - chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides, branching horns, or magnificent bole backbones. Few that fell trees plant them; nor would planting avail much towards getting back anything like the noble primeval forests . . . It took more than three thousand years to make some of the trees in these Western woods - trees that are still standing in perfect strength and beauty, waving and singing in the mighty forests of the Sierra. Through all the wonderful, eventful centuries . . . God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but he cannot save them from fools - only Uncle Sam can do that.” -John Muir (1838 - 1914): “Our National Parks” (1901), chapter 10
“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” -Marshall McLuhan (Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911 - 1980)) (1965)
“We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.” -R. Buckminster Fuller (Richard Buckminster ‘Bucky’ Fuller (1895 - 1983))
“The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.” -Author Unknown: Indian proverb
“We talk so much about leaving a better planet to our children, that we forget about leaving better children to this planet. Educate your children - say ‘no’ to them every once in a while.” -Author Unknown
“You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is not only vital for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself - a point that seems to escape many people.” -Gerald Durrell
“Extinction is Forever.” -Author Unknown: Friends of the Animals
“The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.” -Ross Perot (Henry Ross ‘Ross’ Perot (1930 - 2019))
Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing.
-Christina Rossetti (Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 - 1894)): “Hurt No Living Thing”
We are MFOL! . . . saving the environment by recycling old jokes . . .
“Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar.” -Bradley Millar
“I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers.” -Steven Wright (Steven Alexander Wright (born 1955))
“Everybody wants to save the Earth; nobody wants to help Mom with the dishes.” -P. J. O’Rourke
Kindness to Animals
Speak gently to the herring and kindly to the calf,
Be blithesome with the bunny, at barnacles don’t laugh!
Give nuts unto the monkey, and buns unto the bear,
Ne’er hint at currant jelly if you chance to see a hare!
Oh, little girls, pray hide your combs when tortoises draw nigh,
And never in the hearing of a pigeon whisper Pie!
But give the stranded jelly-fish a shove into the sea, -
Be always kind to animals wherever you may be!
Oh, make not game of sparrows, nor faces at the ram,
And ne’er allude to mint sauce when calling on a lamb.
Don’t beard the thoughtful oyster, don’t dare the cod to crimp,
Don’t cheat the pike, or ever try to pot the playful shrimp.
Tread lightly on the turning worm, don’t bruise the butterfly,
Don’t ridicule the wry-neck, nor sneer at salmon-fry;
Oh, ne’er delight to make dogs fight, nor bantams disagree, -
Be always kind to animals wherever you may be!
Be lenient with lobsters, and ever kind to crabs,
And be not disrespectful to cuttle-fish or dabs;
Chase not the Cochin-China, chaff not the ox obese,
And babble not of feather-beds in company with geese.
Be tender with the tadpole, and let the limpet thrive,
Be merciful to mussels, don’t skin your eels alive;
When talking to a turtle don’t mention calipee-
Be always kind to animals wherever you may be.
by J. Ashby-Sterry
“And all young people are concerned environmentalists, but no one is interested in keeping the schoolyard clean!” -David McKay
“I am I plus my surroundings, and if I do not preserve the latter, I do not preserve myself.” -José Ortega y Gasset (1883 - 1955): “Meditations of Quixote” (1911)
“For the first time in history, one bag of groceries produces two bags of trash.” -Robert Orben (born 1927)
“We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace.” -Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965): “The Philosophy of Civilization” (1951)
“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.” -Jack Handey (born 1949)
“People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it’s safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.” -Author Unknown
“It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.” -Henrik Ibsen (Henrik Johan ‘Henrik’ Ibsen (1828 - 1906))
“The environment is everything that isn’t me.” -Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
“Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of the birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird song.” -Rachel Carson (1907 - 1964): “Silent Spring” (27 September 1962)
“Remember, people, if you were meant to have a fur coat, nature would have given you one. Do not be a thief and steal a fur coat from some animal who is its rightful owner.” -Author Unknown
When is Earth Day? Earth Day is observed by environmental activists on 22 April of each year. If you are a regular person and not an environmental activist, Earth Day is every day.
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” -Doctor Seuss (pseudonym of Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904 - 1991)): “The Lorax” (1971)
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster region has become one of the world’s most unique wildlife sanctuaries, with thriving populations of wolves, deer, beavers, eagles, fish, and other animals.
“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.” - Jacques Cousteau (Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910 - 1997))
“The basis of all animal rights should be the Golden Rule: we should treat them as we would wish them to treat us, were any other species in our dominant position.” -Christine Stevens
“Strip mining prevents forest fires.” -Author Unknown
Ninety-nine percent of all animal species that ever lived on Earth are now extinct - not because of human activity, but because every species has a ‘life cycle.’ Every species appears on the planet, goes through some changes, and then eventually dies out. This is part of the natural ‘cycle of life.’ By some estimates, animal species average about five million years of existence. Everything that begins also ends.
“No one in the world needs a mink coat but a mink.” -Murray Banks
“Our priorities are out of whack. We spend too much to protect birds and fish at the expense of people.” -Sam Graves
Wrong-Way Alien
A curious creature from Saturn
Came to Earth on some orbital pattern.
It saw our brown air,
And cement everywhere,
And screamed, “Why did I take that turn?!”
by Author Unknown
Each year, the United States of America produces enough plastic wrap to shrink-wrap the entire state of Texas. Are you thinking what we’re thinking? Let’s do it!
What should you do if you discover an endangered animal that eats only endangered plants?
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was formed in 1866. It is a long-standing organization, unlike the here-today-and-gone-tomorrow groups of obnoxious hip young attention seekers who hold noisy protest demonstrations in front of shopping malls and on street corners. Additionally, the ASPCA has fantastic pet toys so that you and your furry friend can play together. The ASPCA website is www.aspca.org.
Thames in Flames
In England, when crossing the Thames,
It sparkles and shimmers, like James.
It’s even reputed
To be unpolluted,
Though in places it bursts into flames!
by Author Unknown
“No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.” -Garrett Hardin: as quoted in “The Ecologist” (February 1974)
Animal Rights Activist: Ma’am, do you realize some poor dumb beast suffered horribly so that you could wear that mink coat you have on?
Woman: How dare you talk that way about my husband!
“(Henry Bergh) was a notable defender of animals, and was the founder, in 1866, of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. This was the first humane society in the United States, antedating - a strange commentary - the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, founded by another Fifth Avenue resident, Elbridge T. Gerry, in 1874. Bergh was originally outraged by the treatment of horses on New York’s streets, especially the overworked beasts that pulled the omnibuses and stages.” -Jerry E. Patterson: “Fifth Avenue: The Best Address” (1998)
“With everything we read about spray cans and the ozone layer, it’s enough to scareosol to death.” -Author Unknown
Modern technology
Owes ecology
An apology.
-Alan M. Eddison: as quoted in Rosemary McDougall: “Worse Verse” (1969)
“The whale is endangered, while the ant continues to do just fine.” -Burton Hillis (pseudonym of William Edward ‘Bill’ Vaughan (1915 - 1977))
“Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees.” -Author Unknown: “The Bible,” ‘Book of Revelation,’ chapter 7, verse 3
“To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.” -Wendell Berry (Wendell Erdman Berry (born 1934))
The worst air polluter in the entire state of Washington is a volcano that goes by the name of Mount Saint Helens.
“A zoo is a facility where animals are imprisoned for the crime of being different from us.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“Nobody knows the exact age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better.” -Author Unknown
America the Beautiful
O beautiful for smoggy skies
Insecticided grains
For strip-mined mountains, majesty
Above the asphalt plain.
America, America,
Man sheds his waste on thee
And hides the pines
With billboard signs
From sea to oily sea!
by George Carlin (George Denis Patrick Carlin (1937 - 2008))
“We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” -Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804)
“Each generation takes the Earth as trustees. We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and orchards as we have exhausted and consumed.” -J. Sterling Morton
Little Timmy, age five, was looking at a picture book. When he came to a picture of a zebra, his father asked him what animal that was. Timmy thought a moment, and then answered, “It’s a cow that ate bio-engineered corn.”
“Pollution: The dirtiest word in the world.” -Author Unknown
This animal is very bad:
When attacked, it defends itself.
-Theodore P. K.
China produces more than 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks every year, using an estimated 25 million trees to do so. Hmmm . . . kinda makes reusable chopsticks seem like a good alternative, perhaps?
“Love thy neighbor, whether thy neighbor is a fuzzy bunny or a chirping chickadee or a grandpa who wears stripes with plaids.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“I personally can see no reason for conceding mind to my fellow men and denying it to animals . . . I at least cannot doubt that the interests and activities of animals are correlated with awareness and feeling in the same way as my own and which may be for aught I know just as vivid.” -Walter Russel (Lord Brain)
A Robin Redbreast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.
-William Blake (1757 - 1827): ‘Auguries of Innocence’ (1803), lines 5 and 6; type of work: poem
“He that plants trees loves others besides himself.” -Thomas Fuller (1654 - 1734)
It turns out that everything is actually everything else, just recycled. Matter becomes energy, and energy becomes matter, and so on. Nothing is ever destroyed, it just changes form. The Universe is a giant recycling system.
“Save a tree. Eat a beaver.” -Author Unknown
The Green Thing
In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags were not good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.” The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment.” He was right - our generation did not have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles and soda bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day. We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day. Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day. Back then, we had one television, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And, the television had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then. Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But isn’t it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then? Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from an opinionated young person.
by Author Unknown
Most landfilled trash retains its original weight, volume, and form for 40 years or longer.
“Save the krill. Eat a whale.” -Author Unknown
“Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed - chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides, branching horns, or magnificent bole backbones. Few that fell trees plant them; nor would planting avail much towards getting back anything like the noble primeval forests . . . It took more than three thousand years to make some of the trees in these Western woods - trees that are still standing in perfect strength and beauty, waving and singing in the mighty forests of the Sierra. Through all the wonderful, eventful centuries . . . God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but he cannot save them from fools - only Uncle Sam can do that.” -John Muir (1838 - 1914): “Our National Parks” (1901), chapter 10
“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” -Marshall McLuhan (Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911 - 1980)) (1965)
“We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.” -R. Buckminster Fuller (Richard Buckminster ‘Bucky’ Fuller (1895 - 1983))
“The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.” -Author Unknown: Indian proverb
“We talk so much about leaving a better planet to our children, that we forget about leaving better children to this planet. Educate your children - say ‘no’ to them every once in a while.” -Author Unknown
“You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is not only vital for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself - a point that seems to escape many people.” -Gerald Durrell
“Extinction is Forever.” -Author Unknown: Friends of the Animals
“The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.” -Ross Perot (Henry Ross ‘Ross’ Perot (1930 - 2019))
Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing.
-Christina Rossetti (Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 - 1894)): “Hurt No Living Thing”
We are MFOL! . . . saving the environment by recycling old jokes . . .
