"The most important thing is to preserve the world we live in. Unless people understand and learn about our world, habitats, and animals, they won't understand that if we don't protect those habitats, we'll eventually destroy ourselves"
About this Quote
The hinge word is "unless". Hanna frames environmental collapse as a communication failure before its a policy failure. Education is cast as the missing link between wonder and responsibility: if people "understand and learn", protection becomes obvious; if they don't, destruction becomes inevitable. Thats a strategic move for a celebrity conservationist who built his platform on mass media. He is not speaking to scientists or activists; he is speaking to the enormous middle that likes nature in the abstract, or on TV, but resists the costs of changing habits.
The subtext is a mild rebuke to a culture that compartmentalizes: habitats are "out there", humans are "in here". Hanna collapses that boundary with the most effective rhetorical weapon he has: self-interest. "We'll eventually destroy ourselves" turns conservation from altruism into survival, and it turns the cute animal segment into an argument about infrastructure, food systems, disease, and stability. In a media ecosystem where attention is scarce, he makes the moral case by making it personal.
Quote Details
| Topic | Nature |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hanna, Jack. (2026, January 15). The most important thing is to preserve the world we live in. Unless people understand and learn about our world, habitats, and animals, they won't understand that if we don't protect those habitats, we'll eventually destroy ourselves. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-most-important-thing-is-to-preserve-the-world-122914/
Chicago Style
Hanna, Jack. "The most important thing is to preserve the world we live in. Unless people understand and learn about our world, habitats, and animals, they won't understand that if we don't protect those habitats, we'll eventually destroy ourselves." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-most-important-thing-is-to-preserve-the-world-122914/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The most important thing is to preserve the world we live in. Unless people understand and learn about our world, habitats, and animals, they won't understand that if we don't protect those habitats, we'll eventually destroy ourselves." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-most-important-thing-is-to-preserve-the-world-122914/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
