If you go from the USA - which, relative to the rest of the world, is in pretty good shape in terms of biodiversity and sustainability - to the tropics, everything gets worse. You have Indonesia, which is destroying its own forest. In West Africa there's no control whatsoever. It's a global situation. For that reason it ties in clearly with the needs and relationships of low-income countries.

[Bacteria are the] dark matter of the biological world [with 4 million mostly unknown species in a ton of soil].

Religious beliefs evolved by group-selection, tribe competing against tribe, and the illogic of religions is not a weakness but their essential strength.

Our brain is mapping the world. Often that map is distorted, but it's a map with constant immediate sensory input.

The evolutionary epic is ... the best myth we will ever have.

America in particular imposes an horrendous burden on the world. We have this wonderful standard of living but it comes at enormous cost.

'The Creation' presents an argument for saving biological diversity on Earth. Most of the book is for as broad an audience as possible.