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Sylvia Earle Quotes
Sylvia Earle Quotes
Sylvia Earle
American
Scientist
Born:
Aug 30
,
1935
Life
Ocean
People
Time
Will
You
Related authors:
Ben Carson
Carl Sagan
E. O. Wilson
George Washington Carver
Isaac Asimov
Margaret Mead
Neil deGrasse Tyson
W. Edwards Deming
Hold up a mirror and ask yourself what you are capable of doing, and what you really care about. Then take the initiative - don't wait for someone else to ask you to act.
Sylvia Earle
You
Yourself
Wait
Care
Mirror
Else
About
Someone
Take
Doing
Up
Hold
Capable
Ask
Then
Really
Act
Initiative
I love music of all kinds, but there's no greater music than the sound of my grandchildren laughing; my kids, too.
Sylvia Earle
Love
Music
Too
Kids
Laughing
Kinds
Greater
Sound
Than
Grandchildren
We need to respect the oceans and take care of them as if our lives depended on it. Because they do.
Sylvia Earle
Respect
Care
Our
Our Lives
Take
Take Care
Because
Oceans
Depended
Them
Lives
Need
Ice ages have come and gone. Coral reefs have persisted.
Sylvia Earle
Gone
Come
Ice
Ages
Coral
Ten percent of the big fish still remain. There are still some blue whales. There are still some krill in Antarctica. There are a few oysters in Chesapeake Bay. Half the coral reefs are still in pretty good shape, a jeweled belt around the middle of the planet. There's still time, but not a lot, to turn things around.
Sylvia Earle
Environmental
Time
Good
Half
Big
Few
Bay
Some
Pretty
Pretty Good
Percent
Ten
Good Shape
Remain
Shape
Around
Still
Antarctica
Fish
Big Fish
Lot
Whales
Blue
Middle
Turn
Planet
Things
Coral
Belt
Sharks are beautiful animals, and if you're lucky enough to see lots of them, that means that you're in a healthy ocean. You should be afraid if you are in the ocean and don't see sharks.
Sylvia Earle
Beautiful
You
Sharks
Animals
Healthy
Ocean
Enough
See
Lots
Afraid
Them
Should
Means
Lucky
Look at the bark of a redwood, and you see moss. If you peer beneath the bits and pieces of the moss, you'll see toads, small insects, a whole host of life that prospers in that miniature environment. A lumberman will look at a forest and see so many board feet of lumber. I see a living city.
Sylvia Earle
Life
You
Will
Insects
Living
Beneath
Peer
Bits
Bits And Pieces
Miniature
City
See
Small
Host
Environment
Feet
Prospers
Moss
Look
Pieces
Redwood
Forest
Board
Toad
Bark
Many
Whole
Lumber
There's something missing about how we're informing the youngsters coming along about what matters in the world. We teach them the numbers and the letters, but we fail to communicate the importance of our connection to the living world.
Sylvia Earle
Communicate
World
Matters
Living
Our
About
Something
Fail
Along
Missing
Importance
How
Coming
Informing
Them
Youngsters
Teach
Connection
Letters
Numbers
For heaven's sake, when you see the enemy attacking, you pick up the pitchfork, and you enlist everybody you see. You don't stand around arguing about who's responsible, or who's going to pay.
Sylvia Earle
You
Enemy
Pay
Everybody
Responsible
See
About
Attacking
Arguing
Pick
Around
Sake
Up
Going
Heaven
Stand
Enlist
My first encounter with the ocean was on the Jersey Shore when I was three years old and I got knocked over by a wave. The ocean certainly got my attention! It wasn't frightening, it was more exhilarating.
Sylvia Earle
Old
Three
First
Ocean
Wave
More
Attention
Over
Knocked
Got
Exhilarating
Years
Encounter
Frightening
Shore
Certainly
Jersey
Jersey Shore
Why is it that scuba divers and surfers are some of the strongest advocates of ocean conservation? Because they've spent time in and around the ocean, and they've personally seen the beauty, the fragility, and even the degradation of our planet's blue heart.
Sylvia Earle
Time
Heart
Seen
Beauty
Ocean
Our
Spent
Degradation
Some
Strongest
Divers
Because
Around
Advocate
Blue
Personally
Scuba
Planet
Even
Why
Conservation
Fragility
Bottom trawling is a ghastly process that brings untold damage to sea beds that support ocean life. It's akin to using a bulldozer to catch a butterfly, destroying a whole ecosystem for the sake of a few pounds of protein. We wouldn't do this on land, so why do it in the oceans?
Sylvia Earle
Life
Ocean
Few
Ghastly
Destroying
Pounds
Bottom
Catch
Support
Ecosystem
Untold
Protein
Oceans
Beds
Sake
Process
Land
Sea
Using
Whole
Why
Butterfly
Brings
Damage
Every fish fertilizes the water in a way that generates the plankton that ultimately leads back into the food chain, but also yields oxygen, grabs carbon - it's a part of what makes the ocean function and what makes the planet function.
Sylvia Earle
Food
Water
Ocean
Every
Back
Way
Food Chain
Part
Leads
Also
Makes
Fish
Ultimately
Yields
Oxygen
Planet
Chain
Function
Carbon
Places change over time with or without oil spills, but humans are responsible for the Deepwater Horizon gusher - and humans, as well as the corals, fish and other creatures, are suffering the consequences.
Sylvia Earle
Time
Change
Suffering
Consequences
Other
Responsible
Horizon
Over
Well
Without
Fish
Oil
Places
Creatures
Humans
I want everybody to go jump in the ocean to see for themselves how beautiful it is, how important it is to get acquainted with fish swimming in the ocean, rather than just swimming with lemon slices and butter.
Sylvia Earle
Beautiful
Important
Ocean
Swimming
Everybody
See
Rather
How
Fish
Go
Jump
Than
Get
Just
Want
Lemon
Acquainted
Themselves
Butter
Everyone has power. But it doesn't help if you don't use it.
Sylvia Earle
You
Power
Everyone
Use
Help
We have taken the manatees out of the areas in the Caribbean and really elsewhere in the world, and this disruption to the system makes such systems vulnerable to changes as they come by, whether it's in terms of disease or terms or global warming for that matter.
Sylvia Earle
World
Matter
Changes
Elsewhere
Caribbean
System
Out
Systems
Area
Taken
Come
Global
Terms
Global Warming
Vulnerable
Makes
Disease
Whether
Warming
Really
Disruption
I'm not against extracting a modest amount of wildlife out of the ocean for human consumption, but I am really concerned about the large-scale industrial fishing that engages in destructive practices like trawling and longlining.
Sylvia Earle
Ocean
Wildlife
Out
Destructive
About
Consumption
Like
Industrial
Concerned
Practices
Am
Fishing
Human
Against
Modest
Really
Large-Scale
Amount
Nearly all of the major kinds of life, divisions of life, phyla of animals, occur in the sea. Only about half of them can make it to land or freshwater.
Sylvia Earle
Life
Animals
Half
Kinds
About
Only
Divisions
Major
Make
Occur
Them
Land
Sea
Nearly
I've had the joy of spending thousands of hours under the sea. I wish I could take people along to see what I see, and to know what I know.
Sylvia Earle
People
Joy
Wish
Spending
Thousands
See
Could
Take
Had
Along
Hours
Know
Sea
When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do.
Sylvia Earle
People
First
Too
Wild
Gulf
Could
Mexico
Blue
Infinity
Anything
Sea
Large
Appeared
Harmed
We have been far too aggressive about extracting ocean wildlife, not appreciating that there are limits and even points of no return.
Sylvia Earle
Ocean
Aggressive
Appreciating
Too
Wildlife
About
Points
Return
Limits
Been
Far
Even
The Exxon Valdez spill triggered a swift and strong response that changed policies about shipping, about double-hulled construction. A number of laws came into place.
Sylvia Earle
Construction
Strong
Changed
Response
Spill
About
Laws
Policies
Came
Shipping
Place
Swift
Number
Nothing has prepared sharks, squid, krill and other sea creatures for industrial-scale extraction that destroys entire ecosystems while targeting a few species.
Sylvia Earle
Sharks
Few
Nothing
Other
Extraction
Destroys
Entire
Ecosystems
Targeting
While
Sea
Prepared
Creatures
Species
Photosynthetic organisms in the sea yield most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, take up and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide, shape planetary chemistry, and hold the planet steady.
Sylvia Earle
Chemistry
Atmosphere
Steady
Vast
Shape
Take
Most
Up
Yield
Oxygen
Store
Hold
Planet
Planetary
Organisms
Sea
Carbon
Carbon Dioxide
Amount
Health to the ocean means health for us.
Sylvia Earle
Health
Ocean
Us
Means
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