Dolly Parton has the best way of saying that humans should take better care of the planet.
“Well, my hope for the environment, for all things living, and all things good, just nature in general, [is] that we should pay more attention to how we’re treating our mountains, how we’re treating our world, how we’re just treating everything,” Parton said in an interview with National Geographic Travel‘s Amy Alipio, published Wednesday, ahead of Earth Day on April 22. “We’re just mistreating Mother Nature. That’s, like, being ugly to your mama, you know? That’s like being disrespectful, you know? Seriously. So, I really think we all need to pay closer attention to taking better care of the things that God gave us freely and that we’re so freely messing up. We need to rethink that and do better.”
And the legendary singer/songwriter’s favorite place on Earth is the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, the place where she was born and still, at 76, returns to several times a year.
