Earth Quotes

“Science is not the result of dispassionate machines spitting out Truth; it involves passionate humans pursuing truth and fame and next week’s paycheck, while satisfying curiosity at the same time.”
― Richard B. Alley, Earth: The Operators' Manual

“The switch to public sanitation may have cost more of the economy than the switch envisioned for the energy system, but the very large near-term payoffs of public sanitation made the economics much easier.”
― Richard B. Alley, Earth: The Operators' Manual

“Snow also saw that people who drank only beer in regions with bad air had less cholera than people who drank water in regions with better air. These and other inferences led him to suspect that the illness was waterborne and linked to human waste.”
― Richard B. Alley, Earth: The Operators' Manual

“In other words, Burt reported that the people were stuck with dumping their human waste out the windows because the available options were too technically demanding, or too expensive for people to agree to, or involved loss of money by established businesspeople who had influence with the government.”
― Richard B. Alley, Earth: The Operators' Manual