Defiant Earth Quotes

“It may be true that one cannot stop progress, but the form of progress has always been contestable and open to variations.”
― Clive Hamilton, Defiant Earth: The Fate of Humans in the Anthropocene

“every proposal to cut carbon emissions, for example, must be tempered by assurances that economic growth will not be impeded - which makes one wonder whether the world would merit saving if growth had to be slowed to save it.”
― Clive Hamilton, Defiant Earth: The Fate of Humans in the Anthropocene

“a reader of the Daily Mail brings it down to earth: "Only the 'elite' will go. The rest of us will be left to die.”
― Clive Hamilton, Defiant Earth: The Fate of Humans in the Anthropocene

“Rather than slashing the asset value of some of the globe's biggest corporations, asking consumers to change their habits, or imposing unpopular taxes on petrol and coal, this form of solar geoengineering carries the implicit promise that it will protect the prevailing politico-economic system, which is why certain conservative American think tanks that for years have attacked climate science as fraudulent have endorsed geoengineering as a promising response to global warming. It not only protects the system but vindicates it in the face of criticism from environmentalists, for it would probe that any problem, even one as big as climate change, can be solved by human ingenuity and a can-do attitude.”
― Clive Hamilton, Defiant Earth: The Fate of Humans in the Anthropocene

“Freedom is not the greatest thing; how we decide to use our freedom is the greatest thing.”
― Clive Hamilton, Defiant Earth: The Fate of Humans in the Anthropocene

“the forces of nature are unconscious and involuntary; no decisions are made, so to comprehend humanity as a geological force we need to consider its distinctive quality, its volitional element. Humankind is perhaps better described not as a geological force but as a geological power, because we have to consider its ability to make decisions as well as its ability to transform matter. Unlike forces of nature, it is a power that can be withheld as well as exercised.”
― Clive Hamilton, Defiant Earth: The Fate of Humans in the Anthropocene