I have no doubt that the fundamental problem the planet faces is the enormous increase in the human population

The only acceptable way to solve ecological problems is if you can persuade people to have fewer children. In the Victorian times, there were families of 15 children. Someone like Edward Lear, he was the last of 21 children. And so what we have to think about is offering people the alternative choice. And in the West, that's what's happening. The birth rate has been dropping steadily and still is. I'm wanting human beings to be better off so they don't view children as an insurance for the future.

I think we're lucky to be living when we are, because things are going to get worse.

Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps we should control the population to ensure the survival of our environment

All life is related. And it enables us to construct with confidence the complex tree that represents the history of life

There's a small worm called Loa Loa Filariasis. This parasite can survive in one environment exclusively- namely, underneath the skin and inside the eyes of human beings. Children and the elderly in tropical regions (usually the poorest) are the most widely affected. A painful, slow death is virtually certain. The worm can actually live in the host for 17 years before the host finally dies.

The climate, the economic situation, rising birth rates; none of these things give me a lot of hope or reason to be optimistic.