We have a planetary emergency. We have to find a way to create, in the generation of those alive today, a sense of generational mission.

What changed in the United States with Hurricane Katrina was a feeling that we have entered a period of consequences.

The ten hottest years in the atmospheric record, going back only 160 years, have been in the last eleven years.

Surveillance technologies now available - including the monitoring of virtually all digital information - have advanced to the point where much of the essential apparatus of a police state is already in place.

Politics has become a game of meaningless, mindless battles, conducted by unscrupulous methods and people, designed to transform even the most serious policy debates into sport.

George Bush taking credit for the wall coming down is like the rooster taking credit for the sun rising.

We've seen the bankruptcy of many newspapers. We've seen a further erosion of the line between news and entertainment. But I do believe that there is reason to hope that over time we will see the higher-quality journalism rise to the surface.