鈥淚f we don鈥檛 change our ways, we鈥檙e going to be in the funeral parlours鈥� because we鈥檙e all going to be fat and dead.鈥�
Steve Holland, chairman of Mississippi鈥檚 public health committee, on the latest survey showing that the state is the fattest in the US, with more than 30 per cent of its adults now considered obese (The Washington Post, 28 August)
鈥淢aybe we couldn鈥檛 go to Tahiti, Bermuda or Africa. But we had something nobody else had 鈥� our very own toxic waste dump.鈥�
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Andrea Stierle, a biologist at the University of Montana, on hopes that microorganisms living in Berkeley Pit lake, in Butte, Montana, could be used to treat cancer. The lake holds 140 billion litres of contaminated water (Wired, 21 August)
鈥淚t was so cool, like running on air. You couldn鈥檛 feel it.鈥�
Tom Wood, age 12, on the 2.5-metre-high peaks of froth whipped up in the sea at Yamba, New South Wales, Australia, by cyclonic winds (The Times, London, 28 August)
鈥淪he loves running. I do not impose my will on her.鈥�
Zhang Jianmin, father of 8-year-old Zhang Huimin, who has arrived in Beijing, China, after running an average of 65 kilometres per day for 55 days 鈥� a total of 3560 kilometres 鈥� to celebrate the 2008 Olympics. Zhang denies that the long run has damaged his daughter鈥檚 health (Reuters, 28 August)
鈥淭his is an immense ecological disaster. It鈥檚 a recipe to burn the whole country.鈥�
Theodota Nantsou, conservation manager at WWF Greece, on how fires, suspected to have been started by arsonists, have destroyed 2.5 million hectares and 110 villages in the southern Peloponnese (The Guardian, London, 28 August)
