Future generations are unlikely to condone our lack of prudent concern for the integrity of the natural world that supports all life. - Rachel Carson

It is not my contention that chemical insecticides must never be used. I do contend that we have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their potential for harm. We have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons, without their consent and often without their knowledge. If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed either by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could conceive of no such problem.

Every grain of sand or silt carried out by the rivers and deposited at sea displaces a corresponding amount of water.

Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species — man — acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world.