When I arrived on the planet, there were only two billion. Wildlife was more abundant, we were less so; now the situation is reversed.

We have the power to abstain from destructive behavior.

Why does evolution matter? There is so much about the evolution of life, the development of life on Earth that should rivet the attention of everyone to understand where we've come from and where we might be going. We need to understand the world around us if we are to succeed as a species on the planet.

It's an appreciation for life generally, every bit of life, the smallest creature that lives in the intestines of termites that make termite life possible - to the leaves that turn out oxygen and grab carbon dioxide and with water make simple sugars that feed much of the world. I mean, these are everyday miracles.

All through college, I had frequently been the only girl in a science class - which wasn't such a bad deal.

We want to believe that we can continue doing what we've done for the past thousand years and not worry about the consequences coming back to us.

Fortunately, we know more about the problems that we have than in all preceding history. We know now the consequences of the things that we put into the air, into the water - of the way we treat life on Earth.