With a small fraction of the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the Iraq war, the US and Australia could ensure every starving, sunken-eyed child on the planet could be well fed, have clean water and sanitation and a local school to go to.

For comprehensive Earth action, an all-of-the-Earth representative democracy is required. That is, a global parliament.

Real life security and contentment come not from putting a gun in the cupboard, but from taking a role in the world's future.

I've always thought, and it gets tested at times, that I have a great faith in the fundamental goodness of human beings.

I am not a conventionally religious man, but in the wilderness I have come closest to finding myself and knowing the universe and accepting God - by which I mean accepting all that I don't know.

Whereas our common past, out of Africa, saw a global diaspora of humankind, our common future depends on a global coming together and consensus, resulting in a more equitable distribution of the Earth's largesse. When Africa, which gave us the wealth of life, has that debt returned, the world will have come of age.

Renewable energy is proven technology, the price is dropping, the rest of the world is going that way, that's where our investment should be going as well.