TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Environmental extremists ... wouldn�t let you build a house unless it looked like a bird�s nest.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index A > Category: Air Pollution

Air Pollution Quotes (13 quotes)

City after city, state after state, had essentially failed in their efforts to protect their air and their water, the land, the health of their citizens. By 1970, our city’ skylines were so polluted that in many places it was all but impossible to see from one city skyscraper to another. … We had rivers that were fouled with raw sewage and toxic chemicals. One actually caught on fire. There was a very famous photograph from my teenage years of the Cuyahoga River burning. In fact, it was memorialized in a song at the time.
In 'Environmental Protection: Meeting the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century', Harvard Environmental Law Review (2001), 25, 329, 330-331. [In fact, the Cuyahoga River had caught fire several times over a number of decades, and there had been fires on other rivers. Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Burning (49)  |  Chemical (303)  |  City (87)  |  Cuyahoga River (3)  |  Environment (239)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fire (203)  |  Health (210)  |  Memorial (4)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Protection (41)  |  River (140)  |  Sewage (9)  |  Sky (174)  |  Skyscraper (9)  |  Song (41)  |  State (505)  |  Toxic (3)  |  Water Pollution (17)

Clean air, clean water, open spaces—these should once again be the birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be.
In State of the Union Address (22 Jan 1970).
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  America (143)  |  Birthright (5)  |  Environment (239)  |  Water Pollution (17)

Clinical ecology [is] a new branch of medicine aimed at helping people made sick by a failure to adapt to facets of our modern, polluted environment. Adverse reactions to processed foods and their chemical contaminants, and to indoor and outdoor air pollution with petrochemicals, are becoming more and more widespread and so far these reactions are being misdiagnosed by mainstream medical practitioners and so are not treated effectively.
Quoted in article 'Richard Mackarness', Contemporary Authors Online (2002).
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Adverse (3)  |  Aim (175)  |  Air (366)  |  Allergy (2)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Branch (155)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Clinical (18)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Effectiveness (13)  |  Environment (239)  |  Facet (9)  |  Failure (176)  |  Food (213)  |  Illness (35)  |  Mainstream (4)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  People (1031)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  Process (439)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Sick (83)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Widespread (23)

I am concerned about the air we breathe and the water we drink. If overfishing continues, if pollution continues, many of these species will disappear off the face of the earth.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Continue (179)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Drink (56)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Face (214)  |  Face Of The Earth (5)  |  Fish (130)  |  Ocean Pollution (10)  |  Overfishing (27)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Species (435)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Pollution (17)  |  Will (2350)

I know Teddy Kennedy had fun at the Democratic convention when he said that I said that trees and vegetation caused 80 percent of the air pollution in this country. ... Well, now he was a little wrong about what I said. I didn't say 80 percent. I said 92 percent—93 percent, pardon me. And I didn’t say air pollution, I said oxides of nitrogen. Growing and decaying vegetation in this land are responsible for 93 percent of the oxides of nitrogen. ... If we are totally successful and can eliminate all the manmade oxides of nitrogen, we’ll still have 93 percent as much as we have in the air today.
[Reagan reconfirming his own pathetic lack of understanding of air pollutants.]
Address to senior citizens at Sea World, Orlando, Florida (9 Oct 1980). As quoted later in Douglas E. Kneeland, 'Teamsters Back Republican', New York Times (10 Oct 1980), D14.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Cause (561)  |  Country (269)  |  Decay (59)  |  Democratic (12)  |  Eliminate (25)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lack (127)  |  Little (717)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Pardon (7)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Say (989)  |  Still (614)  |  Successful (134)  |  Today (321)  |  Tree (269)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Wrong (246)

It has been calculated that when a factory saves some money by polluting the environment, it costs the citizens living in the vicinity ten times more than it saves the factory.
In 'Ocean Policy and Reasonable Utopias', The Forum (Summer 1981), 16, No. 5, 898
Science quotes on:  |  Citizen (52)  |  Cost (94)  |  Environment (239)  |  Factory (20)  |  Living (492)  |  Money (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Ocean Pollution (10)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Save (126)  |  Time (1911)

Some people will tell you “the hell with the environment” and others say “to hell with industrial development.” They're both wrong.
As quoted by Advocate News Service in 'Budget by Air Board Pleases State Salons', reporting budget hearings before Texas State House and Senate committees, before which Barden said that Texas must have a “balancing” of environmental and industrial growth needs. In The Victoria Advocate (30 Jan 1977), 5A.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Development (441)  |  Environment (239)  |  Industrial Development (4)  |  Industry (159)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Say (989)  |  Tell (344)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (246)

The automobile is our worst polluter of the air. Adequate control requires further advances in engine design and fuel composition. We shall intensify our research, set increasingly strict standards, and strengthen enforcement procedures—and we shall do it now.
In State of the Union Address (22 Jan 1970).
Science quotes on:  |  Automobile (23)  |  Composition (86)  |  Control (182)  |  Design (203)  |  Enforcement (2)  |  Engine (99)  |  Fuel (39)  |  Intensify (2)  |  Polluter (3)  |  Research (753)  |  Standard (64)  |  Strict (20)

The next decade will perhaps raise us a step above despair to a cleaner, clearer wisdom and biology cannot fail to help in this. As we become increasingly aware of the ethical problems raised by science and technology, the frontiers between the biological and social sciences are clearly of critical importance—in population density and problems of hunger, psychological stress, pollution of the air and water and exhaustion of irreplaceable resources.
As quoted in 'H. Bentley Glass', New York Times (12 Jan 1970), 96.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Become (821)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Cleaner (2)  |  Clearer (4)  |  Critical (73)  |  Decade (66)  |  Density (25)  |  Despair (40)  |  Environment (239)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Exhaustion (18)  |  Fail (191)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Help (116)  |  Hunger (23)  |  Importance (299)  |  Irreplaceable (3)  |  Next (238)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Population (115)  |  Problem (731)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Resource (74)  |  Science And Technology (46)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Step (234)  |  Stress (22)  |  Technology (281)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Pollution (17)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wisdom (235)

Those who nod sagely and quote the tragedy of the commons in relation to environmental problems from pollution of the atmosphere to poaching of national parks tend to forget that Garrett Hardin revised his conclusions many times…. He recognized, most importantly, that anarchy did not prevail on the common pastures of medieval England in the way he had described…. “A managed commons, though it may have other defects, is not automatically subject to the tragic fate of the unmanaged commons,” wrote Hardin…. At sea, where a common exists in most waters… None of Hardin’s requirements for a successfully managed common is fulfilled by high-seas fishery regimes.
In The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and what We Eat (2004), 153-155.
Science quotes on:  |  Anarchy (8)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Automatic (16)  |  Common (447)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Defect (31)  |  England (43)  |  Environment (239)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fate (76)  |  Fishery (3)  |  Forget (125)  |  Fulfilled (2)  |  Garrett Hardin (2)  |  High (370)  |  Medieval (12)  |  Most (1728)  |  National Park (4)  |  Ocean Pollution (10)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overfishing (27)  |  Pasture (15)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Problem (731)  |  Quote (46)  |  Recognized (3)  |  Regime (3)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Sea (326)  |  Subject (543)  |  Successful (134)  |  Tend (124)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tragedy (31)  |  Tragedy Of The Commons (2)  |  Tragic (19)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Pollution (17)  |  Way (1214)  |  Write (250)

We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and now that debt is being called.
In State of the Union Address (22 Jan 1970).
Science quotes on:  |  Carelessness (7)  |  Control (182)  |  Debt (15)  |  Free (239)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Price (57)  |  Water Pollution (17)

When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 28
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Animal (651)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Cut (116)  |  Cut Down (4)  |  Deforestation (50)  |  Discover (571)  |  Down (455)  |  Eat (108)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Money (178)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Tree (269)  |  Unsafe (5)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Pollution (17)  |  Will (2350)

Why should one say that the machine does not live? It breathes, for its breath forms the atmosphere of some towns.
In Coningsby: Or The New Generation (1844), Vol. 2, Book 4, Ch.1, 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Breath (61)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Form (976)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Machine (271)  |  Say (989)  |  Town (30)  |  Why (491)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.