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I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours.

We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet.

I think we need to take responsibility for the things we put on this planet, and also take responsibility for the things we take off the planet. We need to have limiters on how far we allow ourselves to go - ethical, moral limiters.

The threat to the planet is us. It's actually not a threat to the planet - it's a threat to us.

For the sake of our health, our children and grandchildren and even our economic well-being, we must make protecting the planet our top priority.

We live on the most incredible planet, and yet we abuse it, and we abuse it mercilessly.

We must stop trying to protect our planet from every imaginable, exaggerated or imaginary risk. And we must stop trying to protect it on the backs, and the graves, of the nation's and world's most powerless and impoverished people.

I just feel this is my planet.

I believe human beings mark a threshold in the development of the planet, of course, but it is only part of the picture. What Big History can do is show us the nature of our complexity and fragility and the dangers that face us, but it can also show us our power, with collective learning.