Alexander F. More

Reality is interdisciplinary and complex problems require complex solutions: no single science is enough.

Alexander More (1982 –) is an American scientist (climate and health), economist and science communicator known for his discoveries in environmental health, climate change, and the impact of economic growth on the ecosystem. A frequent guest commentator on mainstream news broadcasts, More is also known for his advocacy for environmentalism, his work in the U.S. Senate, and his philanthropic work and advocacy on behalf of the environment and immigrants' rights.

Quotes

2023 The Impact of the Green Transition on Indigenous Lands

The Impact of the Green Transition on Indigenous Lands, Climate Week NYC 2023 (September 22, 2023). Retrieved on September 23, 2023.

• Sustainability and green energy can't just be new words with which we keep doing the wrong thing. We need to rethink our lives, to respect nature first.

2022 Protecting the Planet Protects our Health

Alexander More's TED Talk, 2022 (November 07, 2022). Retrieved on July 28, 2023.

• Reality is interdisciplinary. Complex problems require complex solutions: no single science is enough.

• People are interested in knowing how the two major crises of our lifetime are going to interact with each other and create instability, in our economy, in our political systems, in our financial systems. It's 'the' big deal. Climate change is instability, essentially. And pandemics are also instability.

• Sustainability cannot be just another word we use to keep doing the wrong thing.

• With melting glaciers and ice sheets around the world, we're losing a record of climate change because of climate change.

• The one thing we can do, the easiest thing we can do to prevent the next pandemic is to ban wildlife trade right now.

• When pandemics happen pollution drops. We discovered that five years before the COVID-19 pandemic. We predicted the future by looking at the past.

2019 Climate Change's Impact on the Health of People and Nature

Alexander More's Keynote at the Global Exploration Summit, 2019 (November 07, 2022). Retrieved on July 28, 2023.

• Hope is not a plan. Informed action is a plan.

• We can't protect what we don't know. The only way forward is to make people fall in love with Nature, and we do that by exploring it. We need to reconnect people to the natural environment.

• When I began my scientific career I was told I could only focus on one field, one discipline. That felt like having a library, but being allowed to read only half of the books. Why? I don't like to be limited. How about I give you 10 independent records from multiple disciplines that all say climate change is happening and we caused it? How about I show you how it's affecting our health, in 15 different ways. That's called consilience.

• If the ocean weren't there, we'd be burning because of manmade climate change. We literally owe our lives to the ocean. Since the 1970s, 94% of the heat in the Earth's climate system has been absorbed by the ocean.

• I've been diving for 32 years. I love the ocean. It's my home.

• Some say that we need panic for climate change action. If you've ever been on an expedition or other life-threatening crisis — like the pandemic or the climate crisis — you know that panic is the last thing you want. Panic is not a plan.

Quotes about Alexander More

• He's one of the most quoted and media-savvy scientists that I've come across, which is like finding a gem! He's a sublime communicator of things that are going on.
  • Bill Weir, CNN's chief climate correspondent, describing More, March 15, 2021.