If substantial methyl hydrate melt begins to occur in the Arctic Ocean basin, then the (carbon) accelerator will be jammed, and there will be nothing we can do to cut the speed of climate change.

At 1.24 am on 26 April 1986 Chernobyl’s Unit 4 reactor exploded after staff disabled safety systems and performed an ill-advised experiment to check – ironically enough – the reactor’s safety.

We humans, one species of animal amongst millions, have now become the de facto guardians of the planet's climate stability.

If we are to save humanity and the planet from the worst mass extinction of all time, worse even than that at the end of the Permian, we must stop at two degrees.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that climate change means we'll have to sacrifice our creature comforts. But it doesn't have to be that way.

This is like playing Russian roulette with a Luger rather than a revolver. One bullet, one chamber - and we're pulling the trigger.

Human releases of carbon dioxide are almost certainly happening faster than any natural carbon release since the beginning of life on Earth.

Our evolutionary psychology preconditions us not to respond to threats which can be postponed until later.

I discovered science, and in the process I hope I became a better environmentalist.

Once the 'portals of the future close - in Amazonia, Siberia or the Arctic - we will find ourselves powerless to affect the outcome of this dreadful tale.

Conventional economic theory... counts the depletion of resources as the accumulation of wealth.

Non ero pronta ad amare nessun altro.

The condition you're in at this moment is the product of your previous thoughts, to change your condition, change your thoughts.

The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency - the belief that the here and now is all there is.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

Everybody's going through a lot of stress these days, no matter how well off you are and how many advantages you have, it's a stressful time in everybody's lives.

You should be smart enough to know that you don't know everything. But you have to believe in yourself. I certainly do.

I love who you are, yesterday, now, tomorrow, always.

We were making the future and hardly any of us troubled to think what future we were making. And here it is!

I don't care what people's myths are about me.

The worst law is better than bureaucratic tyranny.