- "So the environment is not a luxury, not a Gucci accessory bag or a fancy silk tie affordable only when all other issues have been resolved.
It is the oxygen breathing life into all the Goals. It is the red ribbon running around our common aspirations for a healthier, more stable and just world."
Klaus Toepfer, UNEP Executive Director, commenting on assessment of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals, prior to the 2005 World Summit.
- "The environment is very important in the aspects of peace because when we destroy our resources and our resources become scarce, we fight over that" Wangari Maathai, Nobel Laureate
- "The closer we get to a virtuous circle, in which our work, our home life, our ethics and our spirituality are mutually reinforcing, the closer we will be to achieving genuine sustainability." James Wilsdon
- "The proper role of government in capitalist societies is to represent the interests of the future to the present." Lester Thurow - US Economist
- "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the life of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and those ripples, crossing each other from a million different centers of energy, build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." Robert F. Kennedy
- "My conviction is that everyone deserves a fair chance in life ... that each of us has a responsibility to each other ... that when the strong help the weak it makes us all stronger" Gordon Brown, June 24 2007 / Opportunities for all
- "Because it matters that people take personal responsibility themselves, we want all individuals and all businesses to join us and build a shared national purpose to make Britain a world leader in tackling climate change." Gordon Brown, June 24 2007
- "The Arctic is the barometer of the globe’s environmental health. You can take the pulse of the world’s health in the Arctic... What is happening to the Inuit will happen to you too in the South, soon… Is it too much to ask for moderation for the sake of my people today, and for your people tomorrow?" Aqqaluk Lynge, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC). Source: Greenpeace UK, July 31 2007
- "When you're one step ahead of the crowd you're a genius. When you're two steps ahead, you're a crackpot." Rabbi Shlomo Riskin (Feb. 1998)