Quotes from Alan Weisman

los PCB eran fluidos que nunca dejaban de lubricar; los PBDE, aislantes que nunca dejaban de evitar que el plástico se derritiera, y el DDT, un pesticida que nunca dejaba de matar. Como tales, ahora resultan difíciles de destruir; algunos, como los PCB, apenas muestran signo alguno de biodegradarse.

The largest, most conspicuous items bobbing in the surf were slowly getting smaller. At the same time, there was no sign that any of the plastic was biodegrading, even when reduced to tiny fragments. "We imagined it was being ground down smaller and smaller, into a kind of powder. And we realized that smaller and smaller could lead to bigger and bigger problems.

In New York, the European starling—now a ubiquitous avian pest from Alaska to Mexico—was introduced because someone thought the city would be more cultured if Central Park were home to each bird mentioned in Shakespeare.

La nobleza es cara, improductiva y parasitaria, y absorbe demasiada energía de la sociedad para satisfacer sus frívolos antojos.

Murderous, mutual loathing between tribes was no more explicable, or complicated, then the genocidal urges of chimpanzees—a fact of nature that we humans, vainly and disingenuously, pretend our codes of civilization transcend.

The worst happens, and life still goes on.