Before the BBC, I joined the Navy in order to travel.

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

I suspect that happiness is not a state but rather a transition.

Nature isn't positive in that way. It doesn't aim itself at you. It's not being unkind to you.

The whole of science, and one is tempted to think the whole of the life of any thinking man, is trying to come to terms with the relationship between yourself and the natural world. Why are you here, and how do you fit in, and what's it all about.

Do we really require so many gardening programmes, makeover programmes or celebrity chefs?

You'll discover in countries where women have control over their own bodies, where they have education, where they have birth control, where they have facilities and where they are literate, when those things happen, the birth rate falls.