“Plants and plant-eaters co-evolved. And plants aren't the passive partners in the chain of terrestrial life. Hence today's Pop Ecology movement is quite wrong in believing that plants are happy to fill their role as fodder for herbivores in a harmonious and perfectly balanced ecosystem. A birch tree doesn't feel cosmic fulfillment when a moose munches its leaves; the tree species, in fact, evolves to fight the moose, to keep the animal's munching lips away from vulnerable young leaves and twigs. In the final analysis, the merciless hand of natural selection will favor the birch genes that make the tree less and less palatable to the moose in generation after generation. No plant species could survive for long by offering itself as unprotected fodder.”
The Dinosaur Heresies: A Revolutionary View of Dinosaurs (1986), Longman Scientific & Technical, p. 179
The Dinosaur Heresies (1986)
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Robert T. Bakker30
American paleontologist 1945Related quotes
Deng Feng-Zhou (1949) Chinese poet, Local history writer, Taoist Neidan academics and Environmentalist.
(zh-TW) 萬物依存大自然，平衡動態順其緣。
栽花植樹維佳境，繁殖新生種福田。
"Reproduction" (繁殖新生)
Source: Deng Feng-Zhou, "Deng Feng-Zhou Classical Chinese Poetry Anthology". Volume 6, Tainan, 2018: 87.
“The world's strongest animals are plant eaters. Gorillas, buffaloes, elephants and me.”
Patrik Baboumian (1979) German strength-athlete
From his print ad for PETA, in “‘Strongest Man’ Eats Plants, Loves Animals,” in peta.org (21 November 2011) https://www.peta.org/blog/strongest-man-eats-plants-loves-animals/.
“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist
Statement of January 1991, as quoted in Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett (2007) by Andrew Kilpatrick
Dannie Abse (1923–2014) Welsh poet and physician
Poem Song for Dov Shamir in: Dannie Abse (1963), Dannie Abse, p. 8
“Whenever one tree is cut, two trees should be planted in return.”
Mirza Masroor Ahmad (1950) spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Virtual Meetings <br class="br">Source: Virtual Meeting with Waqf-e-Nau From Indonesia https://www.alislam.org/press-release/members-of-waqf-e-nau-from-indonesia-have-honour-of-virtual-meeting-with-head-of-ahmadiyya-muslim-community/, 23rd January 2021
“He plants trees to benefit another generation.”
Serit arbores, quae alteri saeclo prosint
Statius (45–96) Roman poet of the 1st century AD (Silver Age of Latin literature)
Caecilius Statius, Synephebi, as quoted by Cicero in De Senectute, VII.
Misattributed
Mary Midgley (1919–2018) British philosopher and ethicist
Animals and Why They Matter (1983), ch. 2, 3.
Francis Escudero (1969) Filipino politician
2009, Speech: The Socio-Economic Peace Program of Senator Francis Escudero