"The parallels of the ecological problems with the financial crisis are clear. The banks and financial institutions privatized the gains and socialized the losses.

We are doing the same with the planets natural capital.

Our present lifestyles are drawing down the ecological capital from other parts of the world and from future generations. We are increasingly becoming the most irresponsible generation our planet has seen.

The principal goal of our economy should be to improve the lives of the entire world's people and to free them from want and ignorance - without compromising the planet itself. "

Press Conference for the 64th UN DPI NGO Conference

 "The current economic model, which has brought unprecedented prosperity to the more developed countries and to particular people in those countries, has only deepened the disparity between them and most developing countries. The parallels of the ecological problems with the financial crisis are clear. The banks and financial institutions privatised the gains and socialised the losses. We are doing the same with the planet’s natural capital. Our present lifestyles are drawing down the ecological capital from other parts of the world and from future generations. We are increasingly becoming the most irresponsible generation our planet has seen. The past 30 years have been characterised by irresponsible capitalism, pursuing limitless economic growth at the expense of both society and environment, with little or no regard for the natural resource base upon which such wealth is built."

Speech to UN General Assembly November 2010

 "Senator Robert Kennedy wrote in 1968: “A revolution is coming— a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough. But a revolution is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.”  Strong words from a Presidential candidate in 1968 when he was talking about the issue of civil rights in his country. We now in 2008 can see that the end result can be positive with the election of the first Black President in the history of the United States. A more fundamental revolution is needed, not in 40 years time and not only in one country, but in the next ten to twenty years and across the globe. We need a revolution in the way we live on this planet.   We, as a species, no longer have eighty, fifty or even twenty years to take that turn. It is time for all individuals to reconsider their attitudes regarding their consumption patterns. It is time for political parties to be honest about the options the world faces. It is time for governments and the U.N. to take action necessary to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and to pioneer a development path on which all the world’s billions can survive sustainably on this one planet. 

"Our present lifestyles are drawing down the ecological capital from other parts of the world and from future generations. We are increasingly becoming the most irresponsible generation our planet has seen."

Speech to Rio+20 Conference May 2010

 The challenges are great - climate change is one of many.  A Summit in 2012 will have to address the financial and environmental architecture that we need to live on this small planet together and in harmony. It will have to deal with the challenges of food, water and energy security, as well as the impacts of increased migration and the need to preserve our basic ecosystems. It surely is a time for us all to come together and work to create a blueprint for a sustainable planet once and for all.  "

 Felix Dodds from the Donostia Declaration

 Dodds F, Strauss M from Sacrificing the MFGs would be a real crisis

 "He (Dr. Hunter Thompson) represented a set of political writers who captured a generation with Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal who felt they had lost their heroes Bobby and John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. and were left with Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew and now President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The contrast for Thompson was huge on Nixon he said: 'America's answer to the monstrous Mr. Hyde. He speaks for the werewolf in us.'"

Dodds, F and Strauss M Network May 2006

 "We are now seeing the emergence of this new paradigm because developed governments have not delivered on their Rio and Johannesburg commitments. Not because the conversation was wrong about what needed to be done - it just wasn't delivered. By 2012, 20 years from Rio, we need another Earth Summit this time on human and environmental security. If we don't, then the agenda of sustainable development will be dictated by the security concerns bringing major impacts on our lives and our democracies." ^[9]

 "The next generation need not become a generation of crisis, it need not be a generation of fear - it could be a generation of hope and solidarity."

Dodds, F  in Environment and Human Security - An Agenda for Change. London: Earthscan March 2005,

 "These changes [we call for] demand an opening up, not a closing down, of our societies. The creation of a strong democracy is one that needs an ever vigilant and vibrant civil society. The world will always have different visions of the societies we want to create, as the human imagination has immense capability. The involvement of all stakeholders is one way of harnessing this capability."^[6]

Dodds, F  in Environment and Human Security - An Agenda for Change. London: Earthscan March 2005,

 "The work of NGOs around the UN Commission on Sustainable Development over the last decade has become a beacon of hope for changing the intergovernmental negotiating process from a talking shop approach to a democratic space for global problem solving."

Dodds, F., 2001. From The Corridors To The Table - The Evolution Of The CSD NGO Steering Committee. In M. Edwards (Ed.): Global Citizen Action. New York: Reinner

 "The future is in our hands rather than those of the party leaders, and the crisis of peace versus war, development versus despair, sustainability versus annihilation, are ours to solve."

Dodds, F., (Ed.), 1988. Into the 21st Century - An Agenda for Political Realignment. London: Green Print