Most people are surprised when they hear my somber figures: we know of 2 million species of plants, animals and microorganisms, and we can give them each a scientific name and a diagnostic description. We know, perhaps generously, more than just a little bit of the anatomy in no more than 10 percent. We have done thorough studies in fewer than one-tenth of 1 percent. And the total number of species on Earth is unknown to the nearest order of magnitude.

No statistical proofs exist that prayer reduces illness and mortality, except perhaps through a psychogenic enhancement of the immune system; if it were otherwise the whole world would pray continuously.

We exist in a bizarre combination of Stone Age emotions, medieval beliefs, and god-like technology.

When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.

I doubt that most people with short-term thinking love the natural world enough to save it.

It's always been a dream of mine, of exploring the living world, of classifying all the species and finding out what makes up the biosphere.

Humanity, in the desperate attempt to fit 8 billion or more people on the planet and give them a higher standard of living, is at risk of pushing the rest of life off the globe.