Quotes

Quotes, notes and comments by blog members, contributors, readers and others:

If we wish to give philosophic expression to the profound connection between thought and action in all fields of human endeavor, particularly in science, we shall undoubtedly have to seek its sources in the unfathomable depths of human soul. Perhaps philosophers might call it “love” in a very general sense—that force which directs all our actions, which is the source of all our delights and all are pursuits. Indissolubly linked with thought and with action, love is their common mainspring and, hence, their common bond. The engineers of the future have an essential part to play in cementing this bond. —Louis De Broglie, New Perspectives in Physics [Reprinted from EDRO]

• Earth is a family planet, not a factory planet. —CAS
• Eat Capitalism! Nearly 7 billion people can’t be wrong! —MG

• You take one look at the satellite images of Australia and wonder when! Because it looks so imminent! —BMT [A reader commenting on the future of Australia as a habitable continent.]

“In all the gin joints in all the countries in all the world, they put people like ‘Golden Brown,’ Peter Mandelson, Alistair Darling, David Miliband … in charge and you expect to have a home to go to?” —quoted from a U.K.  reader’s email

• “12,000 years of [alleged] human civilization and all we have to show for is Google, Facelift [Facebook] … and cluster bombs.” —JPB

• If having 6 time more plastics than plankton in the ocean doesn’t make you want to cry, you don’t need oceans. —CAS

The Accomplices of Corporate Capitalism: What Happened To Academia?

• “By and large, academic institutions have shifted from being the accusers of corporate capitalism to being its accomplices. They are intellectual Tescos, churning out a commodity known as graduates rather than greengroceries.” ~ Terry Eagleton, formerly Professor of English Literature at Manchester University (England).

The “Death” of Texas

• “It’s hard to find any dryland crops alive from San Angelo to Oklahoma. For irrigated crops, a lot of farmers are abandoning half of their fields because it’s evaporating faster than the wells can pump it out.” Travis Miller, a Texas A&M professor.

Climate Change Harming the World’s Breadbasket

The U.S. accounts for 50 percent of all world corn exports, 40 percent of soybean exports and 30 percent of wheat exports.  However, climate change worries are now ringing the alarm bells.

• “We don’t have a long-term reserve. We have a global food supply of about 2 or 3 weeks,” said Eugene Takle, Professor of Agricultural Meteorology and Director of the Climate Science Program at Iowa State University.

• “We’ve become insensitive to climate — with air conditioning, irrigation and better practices,” he said. “Well, I think we need to rethink that. Just how vulnerable are we?”

The future is now!

“It’s not the long-term climate trends,” Takle said, “It’s the variability. It’s the extreme events that have brought the vulnerability of agriculture to climate into the forefront. We think about, and wring our hands for awhile.”