Zac Goldsmith Quotes

#1. If there was a time when 'The Ecologist' appeared not to be making a difference at all, not doing something useful, I wouldn't do 'The Ecologist,' but I think it is useful.

Zac Goldsmith

#2. Climate change - for so long an abstract concern for an academic few - is no longer so abstract. Even the Bush administration's Climate Change Science Programme reports 'clear evidence of human influences on the climate system.'

Zac Goldsmith

#3. Leonardo DiCaprio is a rare phenomenon. Whereas for so many celebrities an interest in the environment is a fashionable accessory, for DiCaprio it is a thread that runs through everything he does.

Zac Goldsmith

#4. Of all the waste we generate, plastic bags are perhaps the greatest symbol of our throwaway society. They are used, then forgotten, and they leave a terrible legacy.

Zac Goldsmith

#5. You know I don't really have faith in politicians - this is quite a sleazy business. But there is no law which says that all politicians will turn out to be scumbags.

Zac Goldsmith

#6. The two million or so residents who live beneath the Heathrow flight path are accustomed to the noise. However, they are right to feel that any expansion would represent an unacceptable broken promise.

Zac Goldsmith

#7. More passengers fly in and out of London than any other city in the world. We are well-connected, we have ample capacity, and we are starting from a position of strength. The problem is that we don't use that capacity well.

Zac Goldsmith

#8. There are clearly many good politicians who are guided by religious belief, so the mix can work. But there's a line to be drawn. It would be hugely dangerous for a country's laws to be set by the scriptures, and particularly those of the expansionist religions.

Zac Goldsmith

#9. Politics colours everything, and anyone who wants change is necessarily political. As an environmental campaigner more or less since I left school in the early '90s, I have always been involved in lobbying, campaigning and pushing for changes.

Zac Goldsmith

#10. 'Green' is likely to be a big issue in the 2008 U.S. presidential election - largely in response to George Bush's suicidal refusal to engage with environmental issues.

Zac Goldsmith

#11. Yes, Heathrow is the U.K.'s busiest airport, but new runways or a new airport are not the answer. It is far better to focus on improving capacity.

Zac Goldsmith

#12. A pound invested in energy efficiency buys seven times more energy solution than a pound invested in nuclear power.

Zac Goldsmith

#13. I think sometimes if you are too interested in day-to-day politics, you lose sight of the long term.

Zac Goldsmith

#14. I do not organize my private life with an eye to my career.

Zac Goldsmith

#15. I wanted to weave a green thread through the Conservative party; that's my job, and I signed up imagining that I would be in a very small minority within my party, possibly even on my own, battling away on these issues.

Zac Goldsmith

#16. A number of countries around the world, and indeed the E.U. as a whole, have chosen not to allow the import from the U.S. of beef from cows fed a diet that includes the hormone ractopamine, because of the fairly grave health concerns.

Zac Goldsmith

#17. Green policy is about triggering a shift to a cleaner way of doing things. To be effective, it needs to incentivise the right behaviour, for example through tax breaks, and that needs to be paid for by disincentives on polluting behaviour.

Zac Goldsmith

#18. Politicians are so detested. And the main cause is not policy; it's the fact that there is no trust.

Zac Goldsmith

#19. I can't be bought. I don't need to be bought. I'm not a careerist. I don't need to have a career in politics. I'm in a very, very luxurious position, but I am in a position of strength.

Zac Goldsmith

#20. By uploading 40 years of 'Ecologist' editions online, we will be creating the world's most extensive ecological archive. 'The Ecologist' will continue to set the environmental and political agenda here and abroad.

Zac Goldsmith

#21. Politicians usually get the blame for dragging their feet on environmental issues. And fair enough. Most of them do just that. But the blame isn't theirs alone. For politicians afraid of losing votes, a bristling media waiting to transform good green ideas into monsters is a colossal disincentive.

Zac Goldsmith

#22. The Conservatives are a confusing lot. They first denied climate change was a serious issue and then suggested strengthening the nuclear industry as a solution to it. They oppose the European Union, but support joining North American Free Trade Agreement, despite its obvious failure.

Zac Goldsmith

#23. Some of the world's most appalling abuses have been justified by religion because it is possible for people to find vindication in their scriptures for any of their prejudices.

Zac Goldsmith

#24. I don't know David Cameron very well. I like him. I think you can judge a book by its cover - whoever said you can't is wrong - that's the whole point of nature giving us intuition, instinct and so on. I think the cover is pretty good.

Zac Goldsmith

#25. If we want to preserve Heathrow's hub status, we need to stop clogging it up with point-to-point flights to places such as Cyprus and Greece, which between them account for 87 weekly flights, and contribute nothing to overall connectivity.

Zac Goldsmith

#26. In North America, more than half of all children travel to school by bus. We need a similar programme in London.

Zac Goldsmith

#27. The food system is not a free market. In this country, we impose reasonably high standards of animal welfare - but we haven't applied the same standards to food we import, so all we're really doing is exporting cruelty from Britain elsewhere, and at the same time undermining our farmers.

Zac Goldsmith

#28. GM has never been about feeding the world or tackling environmental problems. It is and has always been about control of the global food economy by a tiny handful of giant corporations. It's not wicked to question that process. It is wicked not to.

Zac Goldsmith

#29. Europe believes that providing clear labelling for genetically modified food is a consumer right, but such practice is absolutely opposed by the vast majority of states in the U.S.

Zac Goldsmith

#30. Even Karaoke needs higher standards than I can reach, so I have gone great lengths to avoid being bullied into it.

Zac Goldsmith

#31. More than half the world's largest 100 economies are corporations. They have no loyalties to place or citizens.

Zac Goldsmith

#32. The 5,000 or so acres of Royal Parks are one of the things that make London special.

Zac Goldsmith

#33. I am cynical about politicians. My experience of politicians has been thoroughly negative. I have found that politicians are people that can not be taken at face value. There are very few politicians I have been impressed with.

Zac Goldsmith

#34. I could just go to the horse races and take lovely holidays, but I have some strong views, and I want to make a difference.

Zac Goldsmith

#35. Anyone driving through London after the school term ends will notice immediately how much easier it is to get around. The school run contributes massively to congestion.

Zac Goldsmith