Sylvia Earle Quotes & Sayings

Our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels and the corporate mandate to maximize shareholder value encourages drilling without taking into account the costs to the ocean, even without major spills. — Sylvia Earle

I would love to slip into the skin of a fish and know what it's like to be one. They have senses that I can only dream about. They have a lateral line down their whole body that senses motion, but maybe it does more than that. — Sylvia Earle

In terms of personal choices, let's all think more carefully about where we get our protein from. — Sylvia Earle

Not only who am I, but who are we? And where are we going? It's the "we." It's the social connections that are special to human beings. — Sylvia Earle

Santa Monica Bay is less polluted today than when I first moved to the area in the 1970s, because actions have been taken to avoid putting some of the noxious materials into the sea. I think people are more aware than they once were, the air is cleaner, water generally is, in spite of the fact that there are more people. — Sylvia Earle

Our past, our present, and whatever remains of our future, absolutely depend on what we do now. — Sylvia Earle

By the end of the 20th century, up to 90 percent of the sharks, tuna, swordfish, marlins, groupers, turtles, whales, and many other large creatures that prospered in the Gulf for millions of years had been depleted by overfishing. — Sylvia Earle

Meat reared on land matures relatively quickly, and it takes only a few pounds of plants to produce a pound of meat. — Sylvia Earle

Why does evolution matter? There is so much about the evolution of life, the development of life on Earth that should rivet the attention of everyone to understand where we've come from and where we might be going. We need to understand the world around us if we are to succeed as a species on the planet. — Sylvia Earle

Great attention gets paid to rainforests because of the diversity of life there. Diversity in the oceans is even greater. — Sylvia Earle

I find the lure of the unknown irresistible. — Sylvia Earle

My mother was known as the 'bird lady' of the neighborhood. Anything injured, or any unusual creature somebody found, they would always come to our doorstep. — Sylvia Earle

We have the power to abstain from destructive behavior. — Sylvia Earle

We're still under the weight of this impression that the ocean is too big to fail, that the planet is too big to fail. — Sylvia Earle

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

When some people look at a shrimp they think, "Hmm. Delicious." When I look at a shrimp I think, "You're a miracle, absolutely incredible. Your ancestors have gone back hundreds of millions of years." And to develop a thing as simple as a shrimp cocktail, you have to calculate the hundreds of millions of years that have preceded that moment where you're sitting there with your sauce and fork poised. — Sylvia Earle

Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea. — Sylvia Earle

What we must do is encourage a sea change in attitude, one that acknowledges that we are a part of the living world, not apart from it. — Sylvia Earle

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

Far and away, the greatest threat to the ocean, and thus to ourselves, is ignorance. But we can do something about that. — Sylvia Earle

Some experts look at global warming, increased world temperature, as the critical tipping point that is causing a crash in coral reef health around the world. And there's no question that it is a factor, but it's preceded by the loss of resilience and degradation. — Sylvia Earle

There is not a well-funded campaign among scientists to say, "Look, here's the evidence. You can read it yourself. Here are the facts. We're not making this up." — Sylvia Earle

The best scientists and explorers have the attributes of kids! They ask question and have a sense of wonder. They have curiosity. 'Who, what, where, why, when, and how!' They never stop asking questions, and I never stop asking questions, just like a five year old. — Sylvia Earle

I love my Force Fins, which are the kind of fins Special Forces use and really are adapted from the fins of fish. They're very efficient. They are so beautiful, a pair is in the Museum of Modern Art. The set I have are ruby red. I call them my ruby flippers. — Sylvia Earle

Any astronaut can tell you you've got to do everything you can to learn about your life support system and then do everything you can to take care of it. — Sylvia Earle

We have an atmosphere that is roughly 21% oxygen. The rest of it is largely nitrogen. There's just enough carbon dioxide (CO2) to drive photosynthesis. That has been, throughout the history of our species, pretty stable. Until recently. — Sylvia Earle

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

The oceans deserve our respect and care, but you have to know something before you can care about it. — Sylvia Earle

I've always said, 'Underwater or on top, men and women are compatible.' — Sylvia Earle

Throughout all of human history we've enjoyed certain benign circumstances: an envelope of atmosphere, an envelope of temperature. A kind of resilience that if you cut down trees, then they'll grow back. You take fish, they recover. You put stuff into the atmosphere that you know is not good for us, but we can still breathe. We haven't awakened, generally, to the sense of urgency that does exist. — Sylvia Earle

'Green' issues at last are attracting serious attention, owing to critically important links between the environment and the economy, health, and our security. — Sylvia Earle

If the sea is sick, we'll feel it. If it dies, we die. Our future and the state of the oceans are one. — Sylvia Earle

America gains most when individuals have great freedom to pursue personal goals without undue government interference. — Sylvia Earle

It's an appreciation for life generally, every bit of life, the smallest creature that lives in the intestines of termites that make termite life possible - to the leaves that turn out oxygen and grab carbon dioxide and with water make simple sugars that feed much of the world. I mean, these are everyday miracles. — Sylvia Earle

Success underwater depends mostly on how you conduct yourself. Diving can be the most relaxing experience in the world. Your weight seems to disappear. Space travel will be available only to a few individuals for some time, but the oceans are available to almost everyone - now. — Sylvia Earle

Humans have always wondered the big questions, "Who am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going?" It's part of human nature. It's perhaps the underpinnings of religion. — Sylvia Earle

There are some who would like to see the oil rigs removed right down to the ground once their job is done, and there are others, and I count myself among them, who think that once they are in place they begin to be adopted by life in the ocean as a habitat. — Sylvia Earle

With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live. Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere is generated by the sea. — Sylvia Earle

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

All through college, I had frequently been the only girl in a science class - which wasn't such a bad deal. — Sylvia Earle

If Darwin could get into a submarine and see what I've seen, thousand of feet beneath the ocean, I am just confident that he would be inspired to sit down and start writing all over again. — Sylvia Earle

I have come up at the end of a dive, and the boat was not where I left it. I had to take care of a buddy who did panic. But I was confident the boat would come back. — Sylvia Earle

When I write a scientific treatise, I might reach 100 people. When the 'National Geographic' covers a project, it communicates about plants and fish and underwater technology to more than 10 million people. — Sylvia Earle

What we once used as weapons of war, we now use as weapons against fish. — Sylvia Earle

The burning of fossil fuels has altered the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere so rapidly and so abundantly that now, we are driving not just the warming trend, not just the sea level rise that is a consequence of the warming trend that is melting polar ice and alpine ice, but also [ocean acidification]. — Sylvia Earle

Ocean acidification - the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is turning the oceans increasingly acid - is a slow but accelerating impact with consequences that will greatly overshadow all the oil spills put together. The warming trend that is CO2-related will overshadow all the oil spills that have ever occurred put together. — Sylvia Earle

I'm friends with James Cameron. We've spent time together over the years because he is a diver and explorer and in his heart of hearts a biologist. We run into each other at scientific conferences. — Sylvia Earle

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

It has taken these many hundreds of millions of years to fine-tune the Earth to a point where it is suitable for the likes of us. — Sylvia Earle

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

You don't have to touch the ocean for the ocean to touch you — Sylvia Earle

The concept of 'peak oil' has penetrated the hearts and minds of people concerned about energy for the future. 'Peak fish' occurred around the end of the 1980s. — Sylvia Earle

I hope for your help to explore and protect the wild ocean in ways that will restore the health and, in so doing, secure hope for humankind. Health to the ocean means health for us. — Sylvia Earle

I love music of all kinds, but there's no greater music than the sound of my grandchildren laughing; my kids, too. — Sylvia Earle

Never before have we known what we know. — Sylvia Earle

Evolution is not something to be feared. It's to be celebrated, embraced, and understood. — Sylvia Earle

When you think about the real cost of so-called cheap energy that has driven our prosperity to unprecedented levels, for some of us, to our horror, we've realized that this has the potential for burning brightly and then snuffing out. — Sylvia Earle

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

Since the middle of the 20th century, more has been learnt about the ocean than during all preceding human history; at the same time, more has been lost. — Sylvia Earle

There's plenty of water in the universe without life, but nowhere is there life without water. — Sylvia Earle

Everyone has power. But it doesn't help if you don't use it. — Sylvia Earle

It takes 25 years or so for a male sperm whale to reach the edge of social maturity, when it attains the size and weight of those I saw being butchered. It took less than four hours to transform those once vibrant creatures into the basic ingredients of candle wax, lubricating oils, cosmetics, fertilizer, ivory trinkets, and food for domesticated animals. — Sylvia Earle

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

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

Protecting vital sources of renewal - unscathed marshes, healthy reefs, and deep-sea gardens - will provide hope for the future of the Gulf, and for all of us. — Sylvia Earle

I want to get out in the water. I want to see fish, real fish, not fish in a laboratory. — Sylvia Earle

People I know who succeed don't mind working. Those who are competent seem to like doing things well
not stopping because they haven't accomplished what they wanted to on the first go-round. They're willing to do it twenty times, if necessary. There's an illusion that the good people can easily do something, and it's not necessarily true. They're just determined to do it right. I was impressed by hearing one of the women at Radcliffe talk about writing a poem, how many revisions a single poem sometimes has to go through
fifty or sixty revisions to come out with a poem sixteen lines long. — Sylvia Earle

I personally have stopped eating seafood. — Sylvia Earle

The image of Earth from space transformed our view of ourselves. It is maybe the most important image that exists - because we can see ourselves in context in a way that otherwise would be really hard to explain. It should inspire us to wonder about it, to want to know everything we can about it and do everything we can to take care of it. — Sylvia Earle

The Arctic is an ocean. The southern pole is a continent surrounded by ocean. The North Pole is an ocean, or northern waters. It's an ocean surrounded by land, basically. — Sylvia Earle

If we have a hope of really understanding our place in nature and of carving out a place for ourselves that is sustainable, it's primarily because of the new level of communication. It used to be, 'What you don't have in your mind, you have on your shelf.' But now we have the Web. — Sylvia Earle

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

This much is certain: We have the power to damage the sea, but no sure way to heal the harm. — Sylvia Earle

Like a shipwreck or a jetty, almost anything that forms a structure in the ocean, whether it is natural or artificial over time, collects life. — Sylvia Earle

The opportunity that is unique [to our] time is what inspires me to do everything I can to move things forward. This is the first time that we have the capacity to understand our place in the greater scheme of things to the extent that we do. — Sylvia Earle

I actually love diving at night; you see a lot of fish then that you don't see in the daytime. — Sylvia Earle

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

We must protect our ocean as if our lives depend upon it, because they do. — Sylvia Earle

I have heard endlessly that fish are so resilient that there is no way that you could exterminate a species. We are learning otherwise. — Sylvia Earle

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

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

We want to believe that we can continue doing what we've done for the past thousand years and not worry about the consequences coming back to us. — Sylvia Earle

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

Large areas of the Gulf have escaped being scraped by trawls, crushed by more than 40,000 miles of pipelines, or displaced by one of 50,000 oil and gas wells drilled since the middle of the 20th century. Some places have been deliberately protected. — Sylvia Earle

We are all together in this, we are all together in this single living ecosystem called planet earth. As we learn how we fit into the greater scheme of things, and begin to understand how the system works, we can plan ahead, we can use the resources responsibly, to show some respect for this inheritance that goes back 4.6 billion years. — Sylvia Earle

Scientists never stop asking. They're little kids who never grew up. — Sylvia Earle

That attitude of arrogance, that attitude of "It's all about me. It's all about what I can get out of life now" - well, I'm personally driven by wanting to get out of my life the best I can achieve as a gift for those who come after me. — Sylvia Earle

I hope that someday we will find evidence that there is intelligent life among humans on this planet. — Sylvia Earle

For humans, the Arctic is a harshly inhospitable place, but the conditions there are precisely what polar bears require to survive - and thrive. 'Harsh' to us is 'home' for them. Take away the ice and snow, increase the temperature by even a little, and the realm that makes their lives possible literally melts away. — Sylvia Earle

With respect to the ocean being the heart of our blue planet: We are often asked, 'How much protection is enough?' We can only answer with another question: How much of your heart is worth protecting? — Sylvia Earle

We've got to alter our fossil fuel dependence and go to other energy sources. — Sylvia Earle

The end of commercial fishing is predicted long before the middle of the 21st century. — Sylvia Earle

Never again will we have this good a chance as we now have to find an enduring place for ourselves within the natural systems that keep us alive. It's a sweet spot in history. That's why this is such a critical time. — Sylvia Earle

I am not in any hurry to grow up. — Sylvia Earle

Humans are the only creatures with the ability to dive deep in the sea, fly high in the sky, send instant messages around the globe, reflect on the past, assess the present and imagine the future. — Sylvia Earle

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

Every time I slip into the ocean, it's like going home. — Sylvia Earle

Most of life on Earth has a deep past, much deeper than ours. And we have benefited from the distillation of all preceding history, call it evolutionary history if you will. — Sylvia Earle

When I arrived on the planet, there were only two billion. Wildlife was more abundant, we were less so; now the situation is reversed. — Sylvia Earle

If Darwin could see what we now see, what we now know about the ocean, about the atmosphere, about the nature of life, as we now understand it, about the importance of microbes - I think he would just beam with joy that many of the thoughts and the glimpses of the majesty of life on Earth that he had during his life, now magnified many times over. — Sylvia Earle