Without us, Earth will abide and endure; without her, however, we could not even be.

But the Earth holds ghosts, even of entire nations.

in the day after humans disappear, nature takes over and immediately begins cleaning house - our houses.

Most people would rather not hear about the environment because it's scary, so my goal was to write something that was readable so that people would learn a lot and not be so depressed that they would throw the book away.

The real people who hold our civilization together are the maintenance people. If it weren't for them - pumping water out of subways, painting bridges to keep from rusting, fixing a steam pipe that is 70 years old - we'd be sunk. If we got rid of all the politicians and the policymakers in the world, the world would keep going. If you get rid of maintenance people, the whole thing breaks down.

Nobility is expensive, nonproductive, and parasitic, siphoning away too much of society’s energy to satisfy its frivolous cravings.

Without us, Earth will abide and endure; without her, however, we could not even be.