Tim Flannery

“Coal fires are a notorious risk for coalmines. In North America whole towns have had to be relocated because of fires that have been uncontrollable.””

“The golden toad was the first documented victim of global warming. We had killed it with our profligate use of coal-fired electricity and our oversize cars just as surely as if we had flattened its forest with bulldozers. It was as if, having experienced it, we did not recognize what happiness was.”

“In our Gaian world, everything is connected to and influences everything else.”

“Nothing in predictive climate science is more certain than the extinction of many of the world’s mountain-dwelling species.”

“This problem may not occur for several hundred years, but by the time we see the first signs, it will be far too late to do anything about it.”

“If humans pursue a business-as-usual course for the first half of this century, I believe the collapse of civilization due to climate change becomes inevitable.”

“It is imperative to get the smelters to pay a fair price for their power; otherwise, market forces can never induce them to limit their emissions.”

“Kyoto questions the philosophies underpinning societies such as America and Australia, which cling to the myth of limitless growth.”

“Some time this century, the day will arrive when the human influence on the climate will overwhelm all natural factors.”