A sustainable society must depend upon renewable resources,
which oil cannot be. It must recycle nonrenewable resources,
and burned oil cannot be recycled. It needs to restore the base
of renewable resources — our forests, soils, cities and human
minds.
In this effort America needs to lead. We are in retreat.
We should be capable of doing better, and I urge that you
require it. In my own fifty years’ experience in the
environmental movement, I have seen that most of the
environmental damage, and of our stealing from children, that
has turned me gray has come either from the mad dash for
more energy or the thoughtless ways with which we waste
what we find.
— David R. Brower
Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy
and Natural Resources
October 15, 1987