F. Sherwood Rowland
He shared the Nobel Prize for his work on the depletion of the ozone layer by chlorofluorocarbons.
Most quoted
"Isn't it a responsibility of scientists, if you believe that you have found something that can affect the environment, isn't it your responsibility to actually do something about it, enough so that action actually takes place?"
— from Nobel Prize Lecture, 1995
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Especially if you made them feel wrong."
— from Attributed/Paraphrased
"What's the use of having developed a science well enough to make predictions if, in the end, all we're willing to do is stand around and wait for them to come true?"
— from Interview/Speech
All quotes by F. Sherwood Rowland (415)
Scientific consensus is hard-won and should not be ignored.
The price of inaction is far higher than the price of prevention.
Molina and I did not set out to save the world; we set out to understand a chemical reaction.
The stratosphere seemed a long way away, but our refrigerators were right here.
Technology got us into this problem, and technology can help get us out.
Doubt is essential to science, but manufactured doubt is a political tool.
The public has a right to know what science discovers about risks to their health and environment.
We are all atmospheric chemists now, by necessity.
The lesson of the ozone hole is that we can solve global environmental problems if we act decisively.
Nature does not negotiate.
Every environmental victory is temporary; vigilance is permanent.
The molecules don't care about politics.
Our greatest achievement was not the discovery, but the policy change that resulted from it.
The sky is not the limit; it is our protector.
In science, the most exciting phrase is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'
Contemporaries of F. Sherwood Rowland
Other Chemistrys born within 50 years of F. Sherwood Rowland (1927–2012).