--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: We can break the mountains apart; we can…" description: "\"We can break the mountains apart; we can drain the rivers and flood the valleys. We can turn the most luxuriant forests into throw-away paper products...." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/83b/thomas-berry-7391_acid_we-can-break-the-mountains-apart-we-can_625255.jpg" --- # We can break the mountains apart; we can drain the rivers… ![“We can break the mountains apart; we can drain the rivers and flood the valleys. We can turn the most luxuriant forests into throw-away paper products. We can tear apart the great grass cover of the western plains and pour toxic chemicals into the soil and pesticides onto the fields until the soil…” quote by Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/83b/thomas-berry-7391_acid_we-can-break-the-mountains-apart-we-can_625255.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/83b/thomas-berry-7391_acid_we-can-break-the-mountains-apart-we-can_625255.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/83b/thomas-berry-7391_acid_we-can-break-the-mountains-apart-we-can_625255.jpg) > “We can break the mountains apart; we can drain the rivers and flood the valleys. We can turn the most luxuriant forests into throw-away paper products. We can tear apart the great grass cover of the western plains and pour toxic chemicals into the soil and pesticides onto the fields until the soil is dead and blows away in the wind. We can pollute the air with acids, the rivers with sewage, the seas with oil - all this in a kind of intoxication with our power for devastation at an order of magnitude beyond all reckoning.” [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Human activity can devastate ecosystems on a massive scale, causing irreversible environmental damage. **In simple terms:** We can destroy nature dramatically. Key Takeaway Recognize and curb destructive habits. Themes environment destruction human impact responsibility sustainability Mood concerned urgent reflective Type warning philosophical When to use this quote - industrial pollution - deforestation - chemical runoff - climate change - urban expansion Key Concepts Ecology anthropocentrism systemic risk Questions to Reflect On - What choices can you make to reduce your ecological footprint? - How can societies enforce stronger environmental protections? A Different Perspective Mitigation requires collective action and policy change. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Acid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/acid/) [Air](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/air/) [Blow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blow/) [Break](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/break/) [Break Mountains](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/break-mountains-5050664/) [Chemicals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/chemicals/) [Devastation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/devastation/) [Drain Rivers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/drain-rivers-5050663/) [Drains](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/drains/) [Environmental](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/environmental/) [Fields](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fields/) [Flood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/flood/) [Flood Valleys](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/flood-valleys-5050665/) [Forests](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/forests/) [Grass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/grass/) [Intoxication](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intoxication/) [Kind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kind/) [Magnitude](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/magnitude/) [Mountain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mountain/) [Oil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/oil/) [Order](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/order/) [Paper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paper/) [Pesticides](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pesticides/) [Pollution](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pollution/) [Products](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/products/) [Reckoning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reckoning/) [Rivers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rivers/) [Sea](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sea/) [Sewage](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sewage/) [Soil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/soil/) [Tear Apart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tear-apart/) [Tears](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tears/) [Toxic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/toxic/) [Toxic chemicals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/toxic-chemicals/) [Turns](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/turns/) [Valleys](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/valleys/) [Western](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/western/) [Wind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wind/) ## Related quotes > [The movement across Canada to fight toxic chemicals is a women's movement. It's a concern about health; it's very intimate.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-may/the-movement-across-canada-to-fight-toxic-chemicals-is-a-women-s/) [Elizabeth May](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-may/) > [Toxic chemicals present in our homes, schools, work and recreational spaces present a real threat to our health and are increasing cancer risk.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-cuomo/toxic-chemicals-present-in-our-homes-schools-work-and-recreational/) [Margaret Cuomo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-cuomo/) > [We've destroyed nature's lungs with toxic chemicals in air and water, which we also have been consuming.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sanjay-mishra/we-ve-destroyed-nature-s-lungs-with-toxic-chemicals-in-air-and-water/) [Sanjay Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sanjay-mishra/) > [It isn't safe to go to the parks. Toxic chemicals ruin the air and water. 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There are no federal limits to the amount those plants can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barack-obama/today-about-40-percent-of-america-s-carbon-pollution-comes-from-our/) [Barack Obama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barack-obama/) > [“believed that many chemicals widely used today are wreaking havoc on all of us, particularly on young children whose brains, immune systems, reproductive systems,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-bell/believed-that-many-chemicals-widely-used-today-are-wreaking-havoc-on/) [Alan Bell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-bell/) > [“I realized that I needed to code this thing in a new way, so to speak. Jokingly at first, and then more seriously, I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-geiser/i-realized-that-i-needed-to-code-this-thing-in-a-new-way-so-to-speak/) [Ken Geiser](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-geiser/) > [Unacceptable Levels is Powerful. It tells the story of toxic chemicals in just about every aspect of our lives, and the egregious lack of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-blades/unacceptable-levels-is-powerful-it-tells-the-story-of-toxic-chemicals/) [Joan Blades](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-blades/) > [“According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Academy of Sciences, standard chemicals are up to ten times more toxic to children…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karl-weber/according-to-the-environmental-protection-agency-epa-and-the-national/) [Karl Weber](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karl-weber/) > [Planet Bog - Pools of toxic chemicals bubble under a choking atmosphere of poisonous gases... but aside from that, it's not much like Earth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-watterson/planet-bog-pools-of-toxic-chemicals-bubble-under-a-choking-atmosphere/) [Bill Watterson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-watterson/) > [Harmful bacteria, viruses, calcium-forming micro-organisms, and candida are part of our world. Unfortunately, so are toxic chemicals, including everything from pesticides to car pollution…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-wolfe/harmful-bacteria-viruses-calcium-forming-micro-organisms-and-candida/) [David Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-wolfe/) > [In the 24 hours since this time yesterday, over 200,000 acres of rainforest have been destroyed in our world. Fully 13 million tons of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thom-hartmann/in-the-24-hours-since-this-time-yesterday-over-200-000-acres-of/) [Thom Hartmann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thom-hartmann/) > [I don't eat any toxic chemicals, and I eat organic as often as possible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kristin-cavallari/i-don-t-eat-any-toxic-chemicals-and-i-eat-organic-as-often-as-possible/) [Kristin Cavallari](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kristin-cavallari/) > [“Much of my early career was spent working with two of the most toxic chemicals ever discovered, dioxin and aflatoxin. I initially worked at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/t-colin-campbell/much-of-my-early-career-was-spent-working-with-two-of-the-most-toxic/) [T. Colin Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/t-colin-campbell/) ## More by Thomas Berry > [Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important events in their lives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/teaching-children-about-the-natural-world-should-be-seen-as-one-of/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [All human activities, professions, programs, and institutions must henceforth be judged primarily by the extent to which they inhibit, ignore, or foster a mutually…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/all-human-activities-professions-programs-and-institutions-must/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [The universe must be experienced as the Great Self. Each is fulfilled in the other: the Great Self is fulfilled in the individual self,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/the-universe-must-be-experienced-as-the-great-self-each-is-fulfilled/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [To attain peace among the nations in any dynamic or enduring form requires not simply political negotiation but a new mode of consciousness. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/to-attain-peace-among-the-nations-in-any-dynamic-or-enduring-form/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [The divine communicates to us primarily through the language of the natural world. Not to hear the natural world is not to hear the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/the-divine-communicates-to-us-primarily-through-the-language-of-the/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [ During this period (of technological confinement / \[and language\]) the human mind has been placed in its narrowest confines it has experienced since consciousness… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/during-this-period-of-technological-confinement-and-language-the/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [As humans we are born of the Earth, nourished by the Earth, healed by the Earth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/as-humans-we-are-born-of-the-earth-nourished-by-the-earth-healed-by/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [Our present urgency is to recover a sense of the primacy of the Universe as our fundamental context, and the primacy of the Earth…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/our-present-urgency-is-to-recover-a-sense-of-the-primacy-of-the/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [There is an ultimate wildness in all this, for the universe, as existence itself, is a terrifying as well as a benign mode of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/there-is-an-ultimate-wildness-in-all-this-for-the-universe-as/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [The Universe is a unity, an interacting and genetically-related community of beings bound together in an inseparable relationship in space and time... The human…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/the-universe-is-a-unity-an-interacting-and-genetically-related/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [The future rests in the religious, political, economic and cultural capacity of humans to establish this larger context in which the particular traditions will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/the-future-rests-in-the-religious-political-economic-and-cultural/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [We see quite clearly that what happens to the nonhuman, happens to the human. What happens to the outer world, happens to the inner…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/we-see-quite-clearly-that-what-happens-to-the-nonhuman-happens-to-the/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [Because of this erotic bond, the earth becomes luxuriant in its every aspect.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/because-of-this-erotic-bond-the-earth-becomes-luxuriant-in-its-every/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [Our fulfillment is not in our isolated human grandeur, but in our intimacy with the larger earth community, for this is also the larger…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/our-fulfillment-is-not-in-our-isolated-human-grandeur-but-in-our/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) > [The world of life, of spontaneity, the world of dawn and sunset and starlight, the world of soil and sunshine, of meadow and woodland,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-berry/the-world-of-life-of-spontaneity-the-world-of-dawn-and-sunset-and/) [Thomas Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) [Explore all 91 Thomas Berry quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-berry/) ## More Acid quotes > [Grew up in a small town where there was only one crazy guy. 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