Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.

Consider the nematode roundworm, the most abundant of all animals. Four out of five animals on Earth are nematode worms — if all solid materials except nematode worms were to be eliminated, you could still see the ghostly outline of most of it in nematode worms.

Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.

I see no way out of the problems that organized religion and tribalism create other than humans just becoming more honest and fully aware of themselves.

By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified.

If enough species are extinguished, will the ecosystems collapse, and will the extinction of most other species follow soon afterward? The only answer anyone can give is: possibly. By the time we find out, however, it might be too late. One planet, one experiment.

When you get into the whole field of exploring, probably 90 percent of the kinds of organisms, plants, animals and especially microorganisms and tiny invertebrate animals are unknown. Then you realize that we live on a relatively unexplored plan.