Only caring individuals can restore the places we inhabit. The 'simple act of planting a tree' not only restores the places we live, but makes us whole and powerful again. Paul Hawken More Quotes by Paul Hawken More Quotes From Paul Hawken How much harm does a company have to do before we question its right to exist? Paul Hawken company harm doe The problems to be faced are vast and complex, but come down to this: 6.6 billion people are breeding exponentially. The process of fulfilling their wants and needs is stripping earth of its biotic capacity to produce life; a climactic burst of consumption by a single species is overwhelming the skies, earth, waters, and fauna. Paul Hawken sky water people Information from destructive activities going back a hundred years right up until today is being incorporated into the system. And as that happens the underlying framework of industrialism is collapsing and causing disintegration. Paul Hawken information today years You can blame people who knock things over in the dark or you can begin to light candles. You're only at fault if you know about the problem and choose to do nothing. Paul Hawken light healing dark If, as is natural, you focus on the corruption and on those threatened institutions that are trying to prevent change - even though they don't really know what they're trying to prevent - then you can get pessimistic. Paul Hawken pessimistic focus trying We are now heading down a centuries-long path toward increasing the productivity of our natural capital - the resource systems upon which we depend to live - instead of our human capital. Paul Hawken environmental path long That appropriation of resources and the transformation of them into goods and services through the European production system characterized, and characterizes to this day, all industrial systems including the information age. Paul Hawken transformation information age We need to revise our economic thinking to give full value to our natural resources. This revised economics will stabilize both the theory and the practice of free-market capitalism. It will provide business and public policy with a powerful new tool for economic development, profitability, and the promotion of the public good. Paul Hawken powerful practice thinking We assume that everything's becoming more efficient, and in an immediate sense that's true; our lives are better in many ways. But that improvement has been gained through a massively inefficient use of natural resources. Paul Hawken environmental use way What a great time to be born! What a great time to be alive! Because this generation gets to essentially completely change the world. Paul Hawken this-generation climate generations Green business is not about tie-dyed T-shirts. It's about transforming the industrial system itself into one that looks at all the connections. Paul Hawken connections ties looks We have reached a point where the value we do add to our economy is now being outweighed by the value we are removing, not only from future generations in terms of diminished resources, but from ourselves in terms of unlivable cities, deadening jobs, deteriorating health, and rising crime. In biological terms, we have become a parasite and are devouring our host. Paul Hawken environmental cities jobs Don't go to business school. Paul Hawken school-bus business school And also, more and more businesses really want to do the right thing. They feel better about themselves, their workers feel better, and so do their customers. I think this is equally true in the transnational corporations, but it is harder to express in those situations. Paul Hawken feel-better want thinking What we already know frames what we see, and what we see frames what we understand. Paul Hawken insight knows People are naming it the Third Wave, the Information Age, etc. but I would say those are basically technological descriptions, and this next shift is not about technology - although obviously it will be influenced and in some cases expressed by technologies. Paul Hawken technology age people In short, industrialism is over. Paul Hawken We are speeding up our lives and working harder in a futile attempt to buy the time to slow down and enjoy it. Paul Hawken slow-down down-and life Everything is connected... no one thing can change by itself. Paul Hawken Biological diversity is messy. It walks, it crawls, it swims, it swoops, it buzzes. But extinction is silent, and it has no voice other than our own. Paul Hawken own messy diversity voice
