“Most of the damage we cause to the planet is the result of our own ignorance.”

Background:

Documentaries and/or Books:
TedTalks and Interviews:

Birthday: 5 November 1952

• “To do good, you actually have to do something.”

• “The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.”

• “The more you know, the less you need.”

• “Evil doesn’t have to be an overt act; it can be merely the absence of good. If you have the ability, the resources, and the opportunity to do good and you do nothing, that can be evil.”

• “The reason why we won’t face up to our problems with the environment is that we are the problem. It’s not the corporations out there, it’s not the governments, it’s us. We’re the ones telling the corporations to make more stuff, and make it as cheap and as disposable as possible. We’re not citizens anymore. We’re consumers. That’s what we’re called. It’s just like being an alcoholic and being in denial that you’re an alcoholic. We’re in denial that each and every one of us is the problem. And until we face up to that, nothing’s going to happen. So, there’s a movement for simplifying your life: purchase less stuff, own a few things that are very high quality that last a long time, and that are multifunctional.”

• “Mainly, my job is to be on the outside and bring ideas into the company and forge change. Most people hate change—it’s threatening. I thrive on it.”

• “The key to confronting and truly solving any problem is to continue to ask enough question to get past all the symptoms and reach the actual cause.”

• “Who are businesses really responsible to? Their customers? Shareholders? Employees? We would argue that it’s none of the above. Fundamentally, businesses are responsible to their resource base. Without a healthy environment there are no shareholders, no employees, no customers and no business.”

• “A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”

• “…most of the damage we cause to the planet is the result of our own ignorance.”

• “Everything we personally own that’s made, sold, shipped, stored, cleaned, and ultimately thrown away does some environmental harm every step of the way, harm that we’re either directly responsible for or is done on our behalf.”

• “There's no difference between a pessimist who says, 'It's all over, don't bother trying to do anything, forget about voting, it won't make a difference,' and an optimist who says, 'Relax, everything is going to turn out fine.' Either way the results are the same. Nothing gets done.”

• “I don't really believe that humans are evil; it is just that we are not very intelligent animals. No animal is so stupid as to foul its only nest, except humans.”

• “Uncurious people do not lead examined lives; they cannot see causes that lie deeper than the surface.”

• “What we take, how and what we make, what we waste, is in fact a question of ethics.”

• “Good design is as little design as possible.”

• “I have a little different definition of evil than most people.
  When you have the opportunity and the ability to do good and you do nothing, that's evil.
  Evil doesn't always have to be an overt act, it can be merely the absence of good.”

• “In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness. Studying”

• “use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”

• “The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life; it’s so easy to make it complex.”

• “Once you educate yourself, you're left with choices.”

• “Traveling is my form of self-education. Every stream I fish now is not as good as it used to be. Traveling is my form of self-education. Every stream I fish now is not as good as it used to be. If you keep your eyes open as you travel around, you realize we are destroying this planet.”

• “The whole purpose of an adventure is to gain some spiritual or emotional insight. When you compromise the process, you compromise the gain.”

• “Profit is what happens when you do everything else right.”

• “Most of the damage we cause to the planet is the result of our own ignorance.”

• “Going back to a simpler life based on living by sufficiency rather than excess is not a step backward.”