Our comforting sense of the permanence of our natural world, our confidence that it will change gradually and imperceptibly if at all, is the result of a subtly warped perspective. Changes that can affect us can happen in our lifetime in our world—not just changes like wars but bigger and more sweeping events. I believe that without recognizing it we have already stepped over the threshold of such a change; that we are at the end of nature. By the end of nature I do not mean the end of the world. The rain will still fall and the sun shine, though differently than before. When I say 'nature,' I mean a certain set of human ideas about the world and our place in it.


p. 7 - The End of Nature (1989)

Bill McKibben Quotes

Our comforting sense of the permanence of our natural world, our confidence that it will change gradually and imperceptibly if at all, is the result...

Our comforting sense of the permanence of our natural world, our confidence that it will change gradually and imperceptibly if at all, is the result...

Our comforting sense of the permanence of our natural world, our confidence that it will change gradually and imperceptibly if at all, is the result...

Our comforting sense of the permanence of our natural world, our confidence that it will change gradually and imperceptibly if at all, is the result...