Imagine a survivor of a failed civilization with only a tattered book on aromatherapy for guidance in arresting a cholera epidemic. Yet, such a book would more likely be found amid the debris than a comprehensible medical text.

I know that to personalize the Earth System as Gaia, as I have often done and continue to do in this book, irritates the scientifically correct, but I am unrepentant because metaphors are more than ever needed for a widespread comprehension of the true nature of the Earth and an understanding of the lethal dangers that lie ahead.

We'd never have got a chance to go outside and look at the earth if it hadn't been for space exploration and NASA.

Civilization in its present form hasn't got long.

There aren't just bad people that commit genocide; we are all capable of it. It's our evolutionary history.

The big threat to the planet is people: there are too many, doing too well economically and burning too much oil.

If a power station were to be built down the road, I'd prefer a nuclear plant over an oil burner, and definitely over a coal burner. We simply have to lessen our consumption of fossil fuels.