Sylvia Earle is an American marine scientist, oceanographer, adventurer, author, and speaker. Earle is known for being an active advocate of valuing nature and life. Since 1998, she has served as an explorer-in-residence for National Geographic.
Earle served as the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's first female head scientist. She was also designated Time Magazine's inaugural Hero for the Planet in 1998.
Sylvia Earle's groundbreaking work on life in the ocean and the planet has been extensively read and praised. Her primary area of environmental activism is preserving and restoring the ocean.
This is essential to ensuring the survival of all species on Earth. She has often expressed that it is essential for humans to work together to save the planet and its essential blue heart.
Famous Sylvia Earle Quotes
These Sylvia Earle quotes will definitely inspire you.
"America gains most when individuals have great freedom to pursue personal goals without undue government interference."
"Humans, though, have gone way beyond what elephants have done to the planet or what birds or what any fish in the sea is capable of doing."
"I hope that someday we will find evidence that there is intelligent life among humans on this planet."
"The best scientists and explorers have the attributes of kids. They ask questions and have a sense of wonder. They have curiosity. Who, what, where, why, when, and how!"
"When I arrived on the planet, there were only two billion. Wildlife was more abundant, we were less so; now the situation is reversed."
"Evolution is not something to be feared. It’s to be celebrated, embraced, and understood."
"We are now facing paradise lost."
- 'My Wish: Protect Our Oceans', February 2009.
"We're still under the weight of this impression that the ocean is too big to fail, that the planet is too big to fail."
"I hope for your help to explore and protect the wild ocean in ways that will restore the health and, in so doing, secure hope for humankind. Health to the ocean means health for us."
"With care and protection, with safe havens in the ocean, there is still a good chance that we can turn things around."
"Ice ages have come and gone. Coral reefs have persisted."
"Hold up a mirror and ask yourself what you are capable of doing, and what you really care about. Then take the initiative - don't wait for someone else to ask you to act."
"Nobody is calling for an end to fishing on the high seas but some techniques, for example bottom trawling, must be banned."
- 'Can We Stop Killing Our Oceans Now, Please?', Huffington Post, August 14, 2013.
"I am not in any hurry to grow up."
"Since the middle of the 20th century, more has been learnt about the ocean than during all preceding human history; at the same time, more has been lost."
"We’ve got to somehow stabilize our connection to nature so that in 50 years from now, 500 years, 5,000 years from now there will still be a wild system and respect for what it takes to sustain us."
"The diversity of life on Earth, generally, is astonishing. But despite those large numbers, it's also important to recognize that every species, one way or another, is vulnerable to extinction. And in our time on Earth, our impact on the diversity of life has been profound."
"All through college, I had frequently been the only girl in a science class-which wasn't such a bad deal."
Sylvia Earle Quotes On The Ocean
(These interesting Sylvia Earle quotes will make you the biggest advocate of the ocean!)
Sylvia Earle is very passionate about the ocean, and these quotes are proof of that.
"You don’t have to touch the ocean for the ocean to touch you."
"We have been far too aggressive about extracting ocean wildlife, not appreciating that there are limits and even points of no return."
"Nothing has prepared sharks, squid, krill, and other sea creatures for industrial-scale extraction that destroys entire ecosystems while targeting a few species."
"Health to the ocean means health for us."
"It's mainly the high-end luxury market now that drives much of the fishing in the sea. It's not feeding the starving millions. It's feeding a luxury market."
"Far and away, the greatest threat to the ocean, and thus to ourselves, is ignorance. But we can do something about that."
"Some experts look at global warming, increased world temperature, as the critical tipping point that is causing a crash in coral reef health around the world. And there's no question that it is a factor, but it's preceded by the loss of resilience and degradation."
"You can’t see oxygen being generated by trees, carbon dioxide being taken up by trees, but we get that. We’re beginning to understand the importance of forests. But the ocean has its forests, too. They just happen to be very small. They’re very small in size but they’re very large in numbers."
- January 6, 2016, 'We’re Literally Destroying The Systems That Keep Us Alive', Huffington Post.
"The oceans deserve our respect and care, but you have to know something before you can care about it."
"We need to respect the oceans and take care of them as if our lives depended on it. Because they do."
"I want to get out in the water. I want to see fish, real fish, not fish in a laboratory."
"There's plenty of water in the universe without life, but nowhere is there life without water. There is an enormous amount to be learned about the sea; like most wildernesses, it has great potential."
"By the end of the 20th century, up to 90 percent of the sharks, tuna, swordfish, marlins, groupers, turtles, whales, and many other large creatures that prospered in the Gulf for millions of years had been depleted by overfishing."
"The ocean is a living soup. I find that enchanting. I'm entranced by the abundance and diversity of life."
"With respect to the ocean being the heart of our blue planet: We are often asked, 'How much protection is enough?' We can only answer with another question: How much of your heart is worth protecting?"
"Every time I slip into the ocean, it's like going home."
"Sharks are beautiful animals, and if you're lucky enough to see lots of them, that means that you're in a healthy ocean. You should be afraid if you are in the ocean and don't see sharks."
"There is a terribly terrestrial mindset about what we need to do to take care of the planet - as if the ocean somehow doesn't matter or is so big, so vast that it can take care of itself, or that there is nothing that we could possibly do that we could harm the ocean."
Inspirational Quotes By Sylvia Earle
Sylvia has been an inspiration to many, and these quotes are sure to inspire you as well.
"There's something missing about how we're informing the youngsters coming along about what matters in the world. We teach them the numbers and the letters, but we fail to communicate the importance of our connection to the living world."
"If you give up, it's over."
"Everyone everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea."
- 'The World is Blue', September 2009.
"I have come up at the end of a dive, and the boat was not where I left it. I had to take care of a buddy who did panic. But I was confident the boat would come back."
"If somebody dumps something noxious in my backyard, the dumper is the last one I would call on to repair the damage."
"I have lots of heroes: anyone and everyone who does whatever they can to leave the natural world better than they found it."
"I find the lure of the unknown irresistible."
"Like a shipwreck or a jetty, almost anything that forms a structure in the ocean, whether it is natural or artificial over time, collects life."
"Human beings are sea creatures, dependent on the oceans just as much as whales, herring or coral reefs."
- August 14, 2013, 'Can We Please Stop Killing Our Oceans Right Now?', Huffington Post.
"Admitting something is wrong is always the first step towards fixing it."
"It's an appreciation for life generally, every bit of life, the smallest creature that lives in the intestines of termites that make termite life possible - to the leaves that turn out oxygen and grab carbon dioxide and with water make simple sugars that feed much of the world. I mean, these are everyday miracles."
"With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live. Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere is generated by the sea."
"The single non-negotiable thing life requires is water."
"Earth as an ecosystem stands out in all of the universe. There's no place that we know about that can support life as we know it, not even our sister planet, Mars, where we might set up housekeeping someday, but at great effort and trouble we have to recreate the things we take for granted here."
"Why is it that scuba divers and surfers are some of the strongest advocates of ocean conservation? Because they've spent time in and around the ocean, and they've personally seen the beauty, the fragility, and even the degradation of our planet's blue heart."
"When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do."
Interesting Quotes By Sylvia Earle
These interesting Sylvia Earle quotes will definitely help you be enthusiastic in your life.
"Protect the natural systems as if your life depends on it because it does! Our lives do depend on making peace with nature."
"Everyone has power. But it doesn't help if you don't use it."
"People still do not understand that a live fish is more valuable than a dead one, and that destructive fishing techniques are taking a wrecking ball to biodiversity."
"No water, no life. No blue, no green."
- 'My Wish: Protect Our Oceans', February 2009
"Humans are the only creatures with the ability to dive deep in the sea, fly high in the sky, send instant messages around the globe, reflect on the past, assess the present, and imagine the future."
"Knowing is the key to caring, and with caring, there is hope that people will be motivated to take positive actions. They might not care even if they know, but they can’t care if they are unaware."
- 'The World Is Blue', September 2009
"Even now, less than five percent of the ocean has been seen, let alone explored or even mapped with the same precision we have mapped the land, the moon, Mars or Jupiter."
"Our past, our present, and whatever remains of our future, absolutely depend on what we do now."
"With knowing comes caring."
"Thanks to generations of curious, daring, intrepid explorers of the past, we may know enough, soon enough, to chart safe passage for ourselves far into the future."
"I actually love diving at night; you see a lot of fish then that you don’t see in the daytime."
"Just as we have the power to harm the ocean, we have the power to put in place policies and modify our own behavior in ways that would be an insurance policy for the future of the sea, for the creatures there, and for us, protecting special critical areas in the ocean."
"With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live. Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere is generated by the sea."
"What we once used as weapons of war, we now use as weapons against fish."
"My parents moved to Florida when I was 12, and my backyard was the Gulf of Mexico."
"We have become frighteningly effective at altering nature."
"It has taken these many hundreds of millions of years to fine-tune the Earth to a point where it is suitable for the likes of us."
