Jared Diamond

Technology has to be invented or adopted.

No government is here forever. And there are other forces - the most potent force in our society, in fact, big business - doing good for the environment.

Biology is the science. Evolution is the concept that makes biology unique.

Federal elections happen every two years in this country. Presidential elections every four years. And four years just isn't long enough to dismantle all the environmental laws we've got in this country.

I decided that now is the time to start doing the things that really interest me and I find important. It was in the 10 years of the MacArthur grant that I began working on my first book... and I began putting more work into environmental history.

Take air quality in the United States today: It's about 30 percent better than it was 25 years ago, even though there are now more people driving more cars.