"UN Secretary-General U Thant speaks before ringing the Peace Bell at the First United Nations Earth Day in 1971" “For never before has the future been so decisively engendered and molded by present-day decisions… May I express the hope that the wisdom of nations inspired by the vision of a world united around the human objectives of peace, justice, and prosperity will soon enrich human life with a renewed respect for the earth resources, and reward us with a hostility-free and weapon-free human environment.“ U Thant Statement at Opening of the Preparatory Committee on the Human Environment

New York,  March 9, 1970

 

“As we watch the sun go down, evening after evening, through the smog across the poisoned waters of our native earth, we must ask ourselves seriously whether we really wish some future universal historian on another planet to say about us:  "With all their genius and with all their skill, they ran out of foresight and air and food and water and ideas," or, "They went on playing politics until their world collapsed around them."  ~ U Thant  , Statement  at Commemorative Session of the General Assembly, 

New York, October 24, 1970

 

“May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life”. U Thant , Statement  at Ceremony Proclaiming Earth Day  NY

New York, March 21, 1971