I think that we reject the evidence that our world is changing because we are still, as that … - James Lovelock

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No one who has lived through the second half of the 20th century could possibly be blind to the enormous impact of exchange programs on the future of countries.

James Lovelock

I think that we reject the evidence that our world is changing because we are still, as that wonderfully wise biologist E. O. Wilson reminded us, tribal carnivores. We are programmed by our inheritance to see other living things as mainly something to eat, and we care more about our national tribe than anything else. We will even give our lives for it and are quite ready to kill other humans in the cruellest of ways for the good of our tribe. We still find alien the concept that we and the rest of life, from bacteria to whales, are parts of the much larger and diverse entity, the living Earth.

Wise, Thinking, Rest Of Life, Give, Mainly, Tribe

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I suspect any worries about genetic engineering may be unnecessary. Genetic mutations have always happened naturally, anyway.

Engineering, Genetic, Mutation, Mutations, Suspect, Worry

We are the intelligent elite among animal life on earth and whatever our mistakes, [Earth] needs us. This may seem an odd statement after all that I have said about the way 20th century humans became almost a planetary disease organism. But it has taken [Earth] 2. 5 billion years to evolve an animal that can think and communicate its thoughts. If we become extinct she has little chance of evolving another.

20Th, Billion, Intelligent, Mistake, Taken, Thinking

There is no clear distinction anywhere on the Earth's surface between living and nonliving matter. There is merely a hierarchy of intensity going from the 'material' environment of the rocks and the atmosphere to the living cells.

Atmosphere, Cells, Life, Living, Rocks

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

Eugenics, Oil, People, Planet, Big

Only rarely do we see beyond the needs of humanity, and he linked this blindness to our Christian and humanist infrastructure. It arose 2,000 years ago and was then benign, and we were no significant threat to Gaia. Now that we are over six billion hungry and greedy individuals, all aspiring to a first-world lifestyle, our urban way of life encroaches upon the domain of the living Earth.

Christian, Years, Humanity, Greedy, Needs, Arose