“When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.”

As quoted in &quot;Conversations with North American Indians&quot; by Ted Poole in Who is the Chairman of This Meeting? : A Collection of Essays (1972) edited by Ralph Osborne, p. 43. In the article &quot;When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream Poisoned, You Will Realize That You Cannot Eat Money&quot; http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/20/last-tree-cut/ &quot;Quote Investigator&quot; states that Greenpeace placed a paraphrased approximation on a banner in 1981, which has been widely propagated as a &quot;Cree prophesy&quot; or &quot;Cree saying&quot; and alternately attributed directly to Obomsawin, as in &quot;A Thought for the Day&quot; at Wordsmith (8 October 2014) http://wordsmith.org/words/virulent.html: <br class="br">Context: Canada, the most affluent of countries, operates on a depletion economy which leaves destruction in its wake. Your people are driven by a terrible sense of deficiency. When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.