15 Quotes by William H. Calvin

Our civilization will, of course, be "playing God" in an ultimate sense of the phrase: evolving a greater intelligence than currently exists on earth. It behooves us to be a considerate creator, wise to the world and its fragile nature, sensitive to the needs for stable footings that will prevent backsliding -- and keep that house of cards we call civilization from collapsing.

You can always spot the pioneers by the arrows in their backs.

Climate change has a very high procrastination penalty that just grows with each passing year of inaction – rather like what happens if you don’t pay off your credit card. But for climate, there is no such thing as a fresh start from bankruptcy.

It’s going to be like herding stray cats, and the political leaders who can do it will be remembered as the same kind of geniuses who pulled off the American Revolution.

If we don’t start thinking big about the CO2 problem, we may miss our opportunity to stop a climate runaway that will trash the habitable parts of the earth.

Our CO2 mixes with everyone else’s within a year, then hangs around for centuries like a shroud.

Trusting your energy policy to the fossil fuel lobby is like trusting your health care system to the tobacco lobby.

Unless we redesign our civilization in numerous ways, all of the science in the world won’t save us.

Countries that innovate first get the new jobs, developing an economic edge over the C-free laggards that end up having to later import the technology.