Hawken delivered this line as a direct challenge to the class of 2009. He acknowledged that the task of planet-saving may not be possible in the time required, but urged graduates not to be put off by people who know what is not possible. The line became one of the most quoted from any commencement speech of the 2000s, capturing Hawken's philosophy that action must precede analysis of whether something can be done. It was embedded in a broader argument that the earth came with operating instructions — don't poison the water, soil, or air; don't let it get overcrowded; don't touch the thermostat — and humanity has broken all of them.