Historical Perspectives

Administrator — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:27:43 +0000

To many people, the ecology/green movement is a modern day invention arising from our increasing concern about global warming, but here we show you that in fact eco thinking has been a long time in the making. In future issues we’ll take a more in depth look at history’s eco heroes but for the moment we’ll restrict ourselves to looking at three brief quotes from across the centuries.
From Thomas Edison comes a very prophetic message:

“I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait ’til oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”
~ Thomas Edison (1847–1931)

From the 17th century, Cyrano de Bergerac:

“The insufferable arrogance of human beings to think that Nature was made solely for their benefit, as if it was conceivable that the sun had been set afire merely to ripen men’s apples and head their cabbages.” ~Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, États et empires de la lune, 1656
Hector Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French dramatist and duelist who is now best remembered for the many works of fiction which have been woven around his life story.

From Ancient Rome, Pliny the Elder

“Such is the audacity of man, that he hath learned to counterfeit Nature, yea, and is so bold as to challenge her in her work.” ~Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, translated by Philemon Holland
An imaginative 19th century portrait of Pliny the elder who lived from AD 23 to AD 79. Pliny the Elder died on August 25, AD 79 during the famed eruption of Mount Vesuvius that also destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum – a truly nature initiated disaster.

EcoNewsOnline » Cyrano de Bergerac

Historical Perspectives