the work he did. and our plan was always to publish on the upcoming anniversary of his death in december. there's two editors. we have wonderful contributors writing about different parts of holbrooke's life and career. you know, vietnam, bosnia, and we also have some experts from holbrooke's own work including his wonderful book and a lot of, you know, more of his speeches and essays and things he's written over the year. ..

that's the australian that you see and i realized what i saw the american one person a story about what publishers can do to books because in australia clouds are just wonderful ended and trina devine. and the sad title is different from the american subtitled. but when this was showed to my american publishers that it looks too much like watchtower to and carried some religious connotations. but the book came out of my attempt to answer a question that i was asked very frequently when i was talking about climate change, particularly after i'd written the way the money cares

in 2005 in the question was, what are our chances really of surviving this shifting climate this looming and the only way i could think of to answer the question was to really go back to the scientific fundamental, go back to the process that created us and of course look at the intersection between our species and this thing we call planet earth because it's that very intersection and i couldn't think of a better way really asserting to look at the issues and to go back to the work of batman may. that is charles darwin westminster abbey, the great secret house or all of the british women in british people. it shows you some need that he was very into church, but

methane is set on these achievements. it's pretty unique at all the monuments that you wouldn't guess why it was there, obviously what he'd written about was the theory of evolution did not ponder his own church. the reason i wanted to start with darwin was because he was the man who was really trying to tell us how -- with the process that made us and our earth and his creator was an extremely super web. it was simply that in every generation there is variation where they meet are some of those same to be more likely to survive and reproduce another's in the vastness of time that people are becoming aware of the history of the earth in the

mid-19th century, that that must tell on heritability commit those which of the sheep species as a whole as he put it. very, very simple idea. at darwin been a wise man, a very perceptive person decided to seek on that idea for 20 years and it was only when i went to darwin's house but i really understood a little bit more about why he waited so long before he announced the fundamental ideas they changed our view of the world. just outside his house, he built a little thing that he called the same block and is the affectionate table walk. i don't know what he called it the sandbox. even great men can do odd things. every day of his life at down

house he would walk for several hours and people have wondered why he did it. what was he doing as he walked around the racetrack really? wishes to loop. so i just speculated maybe he was protecting his arguments or construct in his head head the beautiful paragraphs that characterizes these written words. but this discusses something very different. they left memoirs where they talked about playing in the force they not often interrupting and always join the games without kicking a ball or whatever they are doing and they are not the actions of a man who is deeply engaged in very complex. i thought i was doing that he wanted was metaphorically

fingering and thinking about implication of this theory for religious belief in this country, for the shape of civil society and other methods. i guess what he was worried about was that he be destroyed by showing that we were not the unique creation of a loving and caring god, but stayed with the result of an amoral and utterly cruel process, that by the scoring safety might destroy hope and charity as well and hundreds are adverse impact upon his society. he might never have published his theory if it hadn't been for these men here. in 1958, 20 years after darwin first stumbled on the idea of how we and every other living in on the planet was named, this man here, offered wallace was

working in indonesia. he was 20 years other than darwin. he was a working class lad, went to the tropics of biological specimens and why he was there on the island he had a malarial attack in as a result of the malarial attack as he was highly favored that there have species were created by exactly the same mechanism that darwin had chanced upon 20 years earlier. he wrote a note to darwin out i mean his theory and that's darwin if he would mind transcending to and at the journals to be published. she was horrified. it is a bit of summary of my word. and he thought perhaps that his whole life support was about to

bestow a by the working class me. as it was coming he repealed to his friends, particularly those who looked after on publications and so forth, including the geologist and as a result of the intervention, both pieces of work for co-publishing july 1858 with darwin and wallace is code that is extraordinary extraordinary how similar they are. the theory is presented in the fullness and completeness in both accounts. the fraud that it was like a script going on in british society. the man who is in charge of publishing the journal of professor bell who is an expert wrote in his summary in 1858 that. no significant scientific

discovery really published in the journal, nothing would revolutionize. of course he couldn't have been more wrong and that we showed the following year in 1859 when darwin published his book on the origin of species. in this town perhaps committee theory released upon everything to change. herbert spencer had when the survival of the fittest and social darwinism. darwin didn't help the subtitle he picked for the book promotions included the line in the preservation and i could imagine going into a bookshop in 1959 is every sort of englishmen and picked up the spoken on the preservation i wouldn't have been thinking about worms that were slightly better at being worms. he'd been thinking about british

empires in india and stuff like that. and so there was this social impact. and at the time, i think what we saw was a very, very deep impact on our society by these darwinian ideas. everything from national socialist and throughout argued the neoclassic economics have thumb imprint of darwinian thinking, particularly as mediated through the likes of herbert. so as i was beginning to look at the process that created us, and we read dolphins chain can we read darwin and perhaps we were selfish shortsighted, ruthless entities forged by an amoral and

utterly cruel process. this give me hope it may not necessarily be the idea. i at the age of 90. at the age of 80, he was still writing in the fact i would argue his most important work was published in 1904 and his eighth decade and that's the title page they arecoming to study the results of scientific research in relation to the unity or plurality of worlds. very, very strange title and deed. but what this book really is is a summary of wallace's understand a note what the evolutionary mechanism had created. he wasn't like darwin. he wasn't interested in drilling down evermore finally in terms of understanding the evolutionary mechanism in 1858. what he wanted to know was what

created them being in holistic thinker, his field of endeavor was the entire planet. in this book is the foundation of the science of astrobiology and compares worlds and the theory that this planet is the only living planet that the others in the universe are all dead. it's also the forerunner. he talks in a book about the way the atmosphere works the way test was important in regulating earth's climate system. it's an extraordinary lucid, what do i say, priests and work that underpins many aspects of current science, particularly holistic science and so forth. and what we learn from wallace

and his work is that evolution's legacy is not brutal insurer. it's not a survey about the fittest world. instead, the court amoral mechanism of extraordinary integrates the interconnectedness and cooperation. i just want to run through a few examples of that cooperation. despite she shows mitochondria, the small organelles that exist in all of ourselves. it's been released in the last 30 years or so that the mitochondria have nothing to do with us in terms of origin. they the originator has been living back. a billion years ago in an ancient ocean and came to cohabit cells of our bodies much the way ecology cohabit with the coral reef.

at over 30 years they have become so closely tied in with the symbiosis that is so intricate that the day can exist for a millisecond up in the south our body and our bodily cells cannot survive without them. and that's the beginning of the complexity. they look amazed income i have hundreds of species of the curio, very simple and yellow for me. we are all like that. we're all ecosystems of complexity. if you talk the cells to me and i mitochondria away, you would still have a shadow of my entire body heat because 10% of my body mass is made up of other species and antenna stands covering my skin inhuman eyebrows and only

survive human eyelashes. we are ecosystems of planetary complexity. and what are we at the end of the day? we are ultimately just intimated crafts for all that complexity. that's what the evolutionary process tells us. that's a biochemistry tells us. chemical origin is in the earth's crust, dating back 4 billion years when the spark of life first came on our planet. the u.s. separation line whose foolish. so what is the big entity that we are part of? outfit their information since

dems organized manner so what is the information system at work here? it is dna, a digital information system, which obviously has created in our bodies, but even more it has created that entity that we see today. 4.5 billion years old. it has created this extraordinary agency. they could concentrate briefly because they tell a tale of germanic mummification by life itself by dna. the first is the craft with the oceanic craftier. the burial states. these are made by the way. of rocks that scientists have recently come up with the rather

intriguing notion that the continents would not exist without life and that's because we can calculate the energy budget of the early earth, the primitive earth. we can work out rights of the russian that are required to create the continents and the figures just don't add up. there is an energy deficit. we're succumbing to create the erosion of oceanic rocks they made the continents being formed. it's been argued that his life itself, like capturing energy from the sun, creating very primitive back area and primitive forms of life that helped hasten the erosion of rocks and so created earth, the ground beneath our feet. the ocean at south we know from studies, paleontology go studies do not resemble 4 billion years

ago of heavy metals and so forth in those inhospitable. the atmospheric even resemble the modern atmosphere. he argues that that very thin layer on a very decisive and not old is 99% to creation of life, but almost all of the gases in the atmosphere would be a section of noble gases are made by life itself by foreign service. so there's a profound impact of life on this system. we can speak of the earth as a living planet, but what exactly is that? there are other scientists asking comes from each and greek and the chick critics believed the earth was wonderful and

perfect living being was a creature. i don't think -- no scientist today believes that is attainable hypothesis because beer is just is not as tightly integrated, nor is it as well regulated as a living creatures such as ourselves. and yet it clearly has some self-regulating capacity. we see in the presence of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, we know how warm the earth would be be if there were no greenhouse gases. after all, with the same distance from the sun come in many 15 degrees. instead the surface or 15 degrees because greenhouse gases make the planet hospitable to life. there are many examples of entities that influence the climate system and keep that hospitable for life in a rather

stable state. they range from atmospheric dust u.s. and created by l. g with the formation of clouds through many other fat is, greenhouse gases themselves. i refer to does this relate geo-pheromones because in a sense they were pheromones and a command-and-control system that goes the immense animal. so i think the best way to describe is basically a commonwealth of virtue and a system whereby species takes and every other species rubbish. the reason i wait till the end of the day, nothing goes into the use. i want to talk a little bit about hierarchies of organization between an individual like ourselves and the planet are ecosystems for that matter. the most important of those hierarchies is a thing called

the circle organism. it drenches thomas, i strongly recommend you read wilson's book called the super organism that explains this level of organization better than anything i know. here's a great example of a super organism. these are termites. you can say they differ quite a lot went to the other, yet there are the same species. a super organism is a level of organization that is the treatment of our bodies and something like an ecosystem with the planet as a whole in action is mediated through these things, these creatures through pheromones. perhaps the best way to start thinking about the origin is to think where they came from. 100 million years ago, these encircle crutches, just very specialized and modified

cockroaches. but it was an that they became super organisms living together. they have the upper hand. they were 100 million years before us, building farms and cities. and look at that. it's like a skyscraper with its own air conditioning system, what system. it's a very complex entity. and the similarities between that structure is striking by the fact there are many differences as well. i just would like to look briefly now that super organisms with around soup or organism, the human super organism. the path that we have taken over the last 10,000 years is most closely paralleled by the ends.

50 or 60, 70 million years ago were wasps perhaps at the very permitted social system starting 60 odd million years ago and started to move from the prelude to their through two more organized with the civilization. some discovered they could enslave other ants and therefore develop societies that bring them up themselves and get them to work for them. other ants could other species found that they could be herders, the fake milk and domesticate informed into herds. some of the head herding societies have extraordinarily sophisticated ways of managing their lifestyle it though carried them on planet searching for the best pasture.

they will defend them from predators, just as we do with their lifestyle. in the lead and build small barrels for them, some species to defend them against adverse weather conditions. there are other species to know which agricultural system. like the termites, they don't grow green plants. as all of the gardens were subterranean. and it didn't does species, particularly the new world that we see the closest parallels throughout societies, human societies. they can meet 8 million or so strong. they can be up to 40 different kinds of workers in those colonies so can break the division of labor with all the efficiency that brings. they mention the human societies. on the level of sophistication

of the societies admit that they parallels. sure there was no sake spare theater, but this sort of label of economic endeavor and complexity of processing of materials is quite sophisticated in these large colonies. the difference between us and me and super organisms they think is that our super organism began with the development of agriculture. and what is really extraordinary about our species is that we didn't just do it once. we did it five times independently as jerry diamond has pointed out in his various books. you see here the five independent exam woes of the discovery of agriculture, presence where we do not step

lease beginning 10 to 14 years ago. in east asia by 89 years ago became domesticated entirely independently. sometime earlier than 10,000 years ago we had domestication in new guinea and that's a very surprising domestication. i haven't had time this evening comebacker interest in these comments worth looking at these independent experiences in super or custom development and jc have very different the outcomes are across these different regions. you might think that the png super organism is insignificant, but no super organism is insignificant in terms of human endeavor. this one here givest mistype all crotchety which happens to be sugarcane in the mountains of

new guinea 10,000 years ago somewhere in the highland valley in ireland estevez never about. the america's type two separate independent developments of agriculture, both much later than the others. perhaps five years and ago, but with a very large number of economically important species being developed today. what astonishes me when i look at these organisms is that it's almost as if we have within us the capacity to do these in almost a blueprint -- almost like a blueprint for super organism organization. if you look at the city, say mexico city that was discovered by the aztecs come you could find you a vow not to be. it's got precincts, sounds,

wrote this, kind of like ancient rome are modern new york, any other city as if there's something that is giving rights to thieves. and what happens in these organisms, what is the glue that holds them together? the clue to host a super organism to get various genetic relatedness, absolutely clear and perhaps the best expression of the way to call newark's was given to us by plato to dozen years ago when he wrote his republic. he said in the ideal society there is no difference between mine and dying and that is exactly the case in many of the social insects. there's no difference between the interests of the individual as opposed to the interests of the collect good super organism as a whole. for all of the masses crave works, we've never been able to

create the system in human society because we are hopeful, selfish of great apes and we have a sense of ourselves in one of important to us. so look with the holds are super organisms to get there has to be different. and it is. there are two fundamental clues. one was identified when he talked about the division of labor. the benefits of specialization in labor are so enormous that they driven human society ever since the first crop was planted in my view. i mean, you've only got to look at the great cities of the world through the last dozen years. london is a great example you see those were populations. what that means is they likely adopt and epidemic disease and for hundreds and hundreds of years they had a relatively healthy countryside. why?

to see the division of labor and benefit form the specialization that comes from people in the city. and our civilization, or having to put up with the pollution that comes with the crowding and traffic jams so we can access the resources made available by the division of labor. the other thing you see if you look at these super organisms is that they tend to share a particular point of view of a deal or not is another very important piece of glue that holds their civilizations together. what happens when the super organisms meet? very, very interesting. sure there is a lot of disaster, warfare and so forth, but there's also an an amazing exchange because the bigger the group is, the greater the division of labor to greater

benefits and opportunities that created. i know i've wandered a long way from initial question, have we got a hope of surviving climate change? i want to return to just the background of our species on the planet. there are two ways of thinking about these. one comes from an understanding of the evolutionary mac and has elucidated by darwin and organs, which can lead one to despair and that particular area has been really articulated most by paleontologists in the mcgirr hypothesis. he puts it out in opposition. the name comes from the chicken

creek as well, medea, the women woman recited prayer has been slaughtered around children and uses that name because he believes life is inherently destructive to life, that a number of d.c. and work with populations continuing to increase in the capacity to defeat them, the population increases exponentially species. he also postulates that the great distinction in its history have been caused by life itself, most of them and he sees that occurring because life tends to lead to the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and a thousand parts per million u.k. changes in the oceanic system that then lead to great extinction that cared drives the end of the 250 million years ago.

it's a very dismal view of the world. it is the survival of the fittest view of the world and humans are nothing special. we are simply a continuation of the great destroyer is planet and the generations and life will go on without us. as this suggests, i have quite a different view of that. i think if we look at not just evolutions mechanism, but its legacy, we see great reasons for hope in this the intricate interrelatedness of life as a whole. we see that whether species of impact did the power of co-evolution, power of the division of labor leads to hope for collaboration in a very different relationship with life

on earth. and i just want to exploit a little bit with you. people often say that we're not making any progress on environmental issues are not that it's all going to in a handbasket and that we should just despair. and i hate it because they hate the way people go from ignorance to these few so quickly. it's a lazy man's option. i don't have to do anything because it's all ruined anyway. the fact is we do need to make change, but we are making progress and i decide to give you a few examples of the challenges that life on earth faces and some of the examples of progress. this is a rather crowded flight and i apologize for it, but it's very important because it really summarizes our war against the most dangerous chemicals that human ingenuity has invaded, the persistence pollutants, the things that will accumulate in

our tissues and passed on to her children and can do damage not just a cc come up a on earth. there's convention, progress is made in 97, but established the negotiating committee rate through two last year, when new amendments to the treaty were introduced in the treaty is a really aggressive treaty. it then set the production of these chemicals that mandate the wealthy countries, developed countries must give funding to developing countries to help the transition to a leather chemicals as well. we truly are in danger. i was just one example, very poorly known of a major advance in terms of the human sustainability. i was on depletion is another particle metaphor in 1987 that

will be celebrated one day as the first global -- first national truly global day of celebration on our planet. you can see here where we were in terms of those depletions and goes on here, relatively less ozone in 94 and continuing 2009, 2020, still slightly. coarser projections about what is happening without the montréal protocol. through 2060, you are down to levels of those on. ultraviolet radiation tears rdna apart and every percentage increase in ultraviolet

radiation is the percentage in a failure for increasing blandness for any creature with eyes. and of course the problem is a long-lived one. these chemicals that lead to depletion are banned under the montréal protocol, so we needed to act well in advance of the worst manifestations of the problems occurring. thankfully we did that and you see they over time in 1880 in 2005 concentrations decreasing. and now over the last couple of years trying to announce that the ozone protection for our planet is recruiting them will be back at levels that it was before we have started releasing the cfcs.

they are arguing the ozone layer is recovering. another great achievement for humanity act in a soho. every nation had to agree to phase out these dangerous chemicals. some toxins -- environmental toxins don't affect all species. one of the most extraordinary impacts recently on a particular group of organisms has been the impacts of this little molecule here on the species here, descriptive species, the vultures that this is an anti-inflammatory drug. i don't know what it's called in the u.s. or australia. it's marketed under the name type of chronic come use for doubt if any viewer suffers at the horrible disease will know about it and any other sort of inflammation. in east asia, where cows are sacred, it was a practice to

give the diseased cows. and beginning in the 1990s, these creatures started dying in great numbers. in fact, for the best part of the decade, the decline species in east asia, not just one, but all the species in east asia with declining. so these things for a day in and no one know initially what caused the end there is very little interest in it. it turned out that the studies were done but who is this chemical that causes kidney failure and dishes 1% and you will lose all those deductions. it's as simple as that. i had a big impact on one particular group in india, the

party people exposed the towers of silence. and it's a very environmentally friendly way of disposing of the dead. you just exposed the body in the top of the shower and train in the dead person is recycled into a living being within just a few days. but the demise of the cultures, the bodies weren't being recycled and they were very influential people in the state to educate and banned the use for petroleos, but almost no impact because if it is a cow do i get the definite unimpeded to the cow. it took a much deeper engagement to get these out of cattle. and what happened is a number of

ngos now offer alternative trouts and subsidies for alternative drugs which are more extensive to indian farmers in an attempt to wean them off the veteran mary madison and slowly now the vultures are returning, but it will take many decades for that to happen. again you have there in the indian sub continent a systemic shift in the way people deal with the particular dangerous chemical, even though they are in that country and the weight that is fleeting to recover the species is vital to survival in india. it wasn't just the parties that were suffering but they declined docs increased and they were very serious concerns about the outbreak of rabies as a result of the shows. so everything has an impact on

the system as a whole. resource exploitation is another great threat to humanity. there's two examples here and i want to just briefly talk about. you can see here this is the hendrix waited, the grocer overexploited undershirt timeline. you can see what that's going. we are destroying the oceans very, very quickly. and it's one of the more intractable problems. there's treaties in place, organizations working on this problem. but as you can see it's pointing downwards. this problem here in landis actually been more effectively to live. you see destruction of forests with the development of satellite surveillance around the planet now. there is no excuse anymore anywhere on the planet and major

advances. they were regular readers now just the last year or two and illegal killing of rain forest and identified the capital in those illegal pastures such as the big meatpacking companies for north america. surprise surprise the rain forest stops almost overnight. it's now being talked about to the climate discussions so they got a good hope of turning this problem around. they are very hard to regulate. why do people do this anyway? ways that people will destroy their resource base even though they know it's bad for the

future? is partly because evolution has designed us to be throwaway species. it is least likely to be short in the past and have the discounting rate in the online sister the revolutionary process that uses things. i just explained briefly how this works. if they will, could be $100 right now, but you would like to give you people come up with outrageous figures. it is outrageous because if we took $100 to put it in the bank coming only get $110 on average at the end of the year, so if i discount. if we wait for something in the future, store something up for the future and discount that very highly and partly that's because an evolutionary times we

may have been likely to die before we reaped the benefits. people with very little to lose at the discount rate. it's socially mediated by affluence and how secure we are. the simile parts are some of the poorest people on the planet when they become the richest people on the planet almost overnight, but very, very high risk thing. young men of course are the ones most current these kind of feature most deeply if you're a chime in with nothing to lose and you'll attract the next generation before you end up locked up for life or wherever you ended dying if you're a somali pirate. so it is important we understand that about ourselves because an interconnected world, every part

in issues of social justice and relative policy of opportunity and affluence and so forth are very important. i want to just talk briefly about what is happening to five independent superhuman organisms emerge towards a single coherent entity and we can see that happening right now really on our planet. i think were at a critical phase at the moment, with the new social media such as the internet, mobile phones and so forth are causing errors received to cohere of the single local intelligence, were ideas are shared interests only and is that an unparalleled level. with the social media are also doing is empowering individuals. so we are seeing for the first time -- not the first time, but

an accelerated rate in the middle east, people throwing up dictatorships empowered by these new social media. and i think it's an amazing phenomenon. i was watching the news, looking at was unit area and there were these people who put terribly ailing that first. the robe and headdress and women dressed in the job talking in arabic. i realized that they were saying is that people united will never be defeated and it made me think there is a common humanity year, a common series of aspirations we all have that they become empowered come to the surface and as they become interconnected we come ever more transparent. where is all of that having? it is anybody's guess, but what i think we are seeing now is the emergence of a truly global

super organism, which is capable in principle, at least, of acting as an intelligence for our planet. and if you look at wallace's legacy at wallace's insight into co-evolution, you can see that is the way things -- that is the way the information has always worked. command-and-control systems have been thrown up again and again in nature. they beat the command-and-control system for itself on this emerging global super organism. people say that could never be because humans are really unselfish. third brains weigh about 2% of body mass undertaken 20% of the energy from a used 20 of the

energy or bodies taken. they're also incredibly selfish as any doctor would know. rental costs applies to every other part of the body before they've cost themselves for a second. just like us. super greedy and selfish. it's an interesting 20% of the energy that humans are currently using something in excess of 20% of the total capacity of the planet. perhaps we shall come back into balance. but just because recruiting selfish, doesn't mean they can't afford control and command system. the other important thing to realize is that any command-and-control system has to be self regulated. what stops the brain from taking in more sources? it has to live within the constraints of its body and we have species becoming self-regulating because we see the u.n. population average

7 billion people on the planet, but the projections are within 40 years we'll be at a population 9 billion. so within 150 years, the entire human species both gone through the demographic transition. there has never been a species that's escaped the track that thomas marcus describes so eloquently we are it expands exponentially. we are the first species ever to escape and in doing so we have a come self-regulating outlays and that gives me great hope for is species on our planet. just to summarize, what is it like in word by analogy should replace it? the originator of the terry has

a particular view on this. he says that your system is like an old lady who has to share her house with the growing and destructive group at teenagers. and if they don't, they will do them of the hypothesis. i think that he is wrong about that. you see that it is much more like a newborn baby because newborns have new formed brain, just like our first now, just going through the process of super organ and sends. nervous systems, just as surveillance systems for the planet and for many natural systems that exist to sell to integrate us and the rest of nature and the system as a whole. it's easier to be fully

integrated, just as it is today. we have been newly emerging consciousness, the technology. we have to be fully integrated, so self-control and self awareness remain rudimentary the humans bases. it's also the most dangerous. his life so we are going through dangerous transition. i'd just like to revisit the idea that information organizers matter in the context of the life of our planet, formed 4.5 billion years ago out of a bowl of atmospheric dust, life originating around about 4 billion years ago. scientists now think very, very early in the history of our planet. after 3 billion years ago, life has taken control of the systems. so the chemical equilibrium has finished in dramatic chemical

disequilibrium is enforced by the late system itself, by the nervous energy budget it commenced a day or 3 billion years ago the budget was sufficient to take control of the systems. 100 million years ago the cockroaches discover agriculture and become the first super organism. 10,000 years ago, the first intelligent super organism formed parent species and perhaps today come in the very end of the line, we can see the birth of a new integrated press taking place where humans have the potential to act as a commanding system in the planet, as for our bodies. one night they have reproduced? i would argue that a moment to colonize another heavenly body who can think of having

reproduced. russel wallace, make great scientific your site at the very end of his book, man in the universe that perhaps it is human destiny to fulfill the human spirit in the universe. it is they thought that really struck with me for two reasons. one is if he looks are, if you look at the time involved in planetary travel, even at the rate we travel through space today will take us 5 million years for the galaxy in that span a paleontologist with respect to quake and amazing anything. but sehgal i.e., as well because it highlights just have very much is at stake for this generation, this decade. this is the moment of decision. it may not miss privilege to be poor in and be here and now because we are the generation that will actually make decisions about these.

will decide whether it's too difficult to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels and move to cleaner energy and thereby precipitate a global crisis that may destabilize the systems and lead to the demise of the global super organism that is only now taking shape. the morning inc. about the options before are really framed by one of my other scientific areas, and in college and we go for me, an italian physicist and one day -- when the thing he looked up into the heavens and knew there were billions of stars that are en masse the very simple question of why the great silence, why aren't we hearing from other intelligence out there in the vastness of the universe? and there really are only two satisfactory explanations asked that question has become known.

one is that intelligent super organisms that exist at the global style carry within themselves the seeds of their own destruction so soon after birth they inevitably die and therefore the great science persists in the universe. the second possibility, however, as we genuinely are the first. now that might seem incredibly unlikely, but if you look at the timescale of the universe, and another 10 billion years, you realize that it takes three generations to create the heavy elements make life even possible. that's teaching up to here before you can even think about having life in the universe because you don't have any how events that can be born in the hearts of staff over three generations. then of course take so the revolutionary time to create an intelligent, global super

organism. so maybe, just maybe we are the first and maybe wallace is right that we will go on to protect the human spirit in the vastness of the universe. thank you very much. [applause] i'm happy to take questions. yes, please. >> i think i heard you say sugar is the most valuable crop in the world and whether you attach any significance to that? >> well, sugar is a form of energy used in many, many things. it's the most valuable crop on the planet and with the advent of biofuels, we see sugarcane being used to transport fuels as

well as the food. so i think the woman in new guinea 10,000 years ago with the sugarcane in the field or garden. [inaudible] >> i think it is financial payback in terms of monetary failure, it's also very important because it gives us both food and =tranfour. there's someone right there you think. >> yet, in which he mentioned the population capping out and 9 billion i seen that before and i don't know if i just didn't have defined out by looking up on the internet. but why is that? what are the things causing a quick >> well, it's really in it treating question unworthy of a

more elaborate answer. every two years the united nations is a projection on global population growth and they've been doing it for a number of years. less than really intrigued me because it suggested the total global population as a 2050 would be lower than the previous projection. if you get what i mean. so there no projecting a higher population. after that point, everyone of the projections had just been showing an increase in population. so it could have a look at the assumptions that were underlying and it was fascinating because the u.n. demographers had assumed that it would be defeated, for example at the moment that is a big impact on human population growth. they also assumed that it in developed countries that the united states and australia, the average family size would increase over the 40 years. so well is to decrease coming through those projections was coming strictly from the

decreasing average family size in the poorest countries on the planet. we get a little bit from the not quite so poor countries. so that was a real blessing to be. ..

>> okay. that's was a different direction than i thought. [laughter] there is a lot happening on the planet at the moment and i will try to contextualize the best i can.

pretty close to the copenhagen processing and it was widely perceived the copenhagen meeting failed to produce anything but that was a misconception what happened-- would happen was the body into the agreement by the wealthiest of developing countries india, china brazil and south africa and they signed on to the copenhagen accord. under the accord they all played -- pledged carbon emissions by a 2020 under the accord committed they give two-thirds of the way to read need to be. and so we only need another 1/3 per hour is anyone doing anything? they are rather surprisingly. even the united states.

with a 17% reduction below 2005 levels you are already at negative 9%. as a result of a lot of initiatives but at the state level as well. in a few months time we will cv opening of the larger missions in california there is a number of government initiatives including the standards and proposals for putting fuel efficiency standards to have an impact as well. and i am confident that u.s. will achieve that target. at the battle of the moment to give the carbon pricing but the most surprising is china which we were very close to the chinese and have a member meeting on the

copenhagen climate council i remember when the announcement was made to target the 45% reduction chinese colleagues said this is impossible. but yet to dot it hasn't happened and they are on target to do more. and then with the establishment of the trading schemes in china and it is widely anticipated china made joined those emissions that will create a robot fed is very, very powerful. there is a lot happening. no guarantee of success but i think we're on a path. >> why are there clouds on

the book? [laughter] >> that is a great question. my publisher in australia thought they would suggest a lot of thinking. intellectual activity and aspiration. i think in this country people think it may suggest have been. that is why it is different here. >> even if the population would cap at 9 billion, what would cause it would be the absolute is that would be 9 billion people consuming more so if the population and caps would it matter because tata consumption would increase we consume far more than anybody so if it is 9 billion americans?

not africans, a chinese. >> everybody wants quality of life that you enjoy. that is how they achieve its accounts at the end of the day and then we were tied to the fossil fuel economy that is one of the major problems of climate change. if you shift from that, a lot of things become possible. just think about the entire planetary budget of 100 terra watts driven by the capture of 4% of the semites force that is the entire budget for the whole planet. if we can get basic energy from the sun, there is something wrong with us. it and oil reserves dropping 20% per year and last year renewable energy is growing

very quickly. places in china where it you look for the future i don't think they will be driven at carriage they will have electric cars in the future. things are changing. there is no guarantee we can feed all 9 billion people on the of plan indefinitely and give them high quality protein but there is some cause for hope and by a know there is a chapter about how people are starting to work with the agricultural systems and just one example of that from my own country that i know reasonably well, in austria we have been beset with one natural disaster after another including the prolonged droughts that have the impact on agriculture, tropical storms, but during that period we could increase grain production and beef

production by 50%. how is that achieve? if you look at the effects on the ground that is achieved by people leaving behind the mind set on the war on nature to grow crops to understand the system. the best example is grain production in australia used to be you go with the plow and would rip up every living thing it until it was bare earth then put on pesticides and herbicides and nothing would compete with the crop then you get a drought and some wind and the topsoil blows away you don't get the crop battle. smart farmers started to use what is called zero kill agriculture's some farmers don't use any fossil fuels with solar driven plows. they are rare but they do it. it puts a tiny incision

through perennial grass and the grasses protective the crop and protect the soil moisture that helps them come up and if they could do your they harvest and if they don't, then they don't lose the topsoil. those practices are having a big impact on productivity and and globally will allow us to produce food more sustainable a. one final question? >> you're talked made me feel that i have hope that "star trek" was right than they solve all of our problems. [laughter] we manage to do is somehow and we're out in the galaxy. what do see the role of the

unique super glue or super organism of humanity of religion? >> that is a difficult question because everyone thinks their religion is the right one. and it is hard to have at as the super glue to hold everything together. i have not thought about question but that was my first reaction to thinking about it. probably we would form a coherent glue is the basic dignity of humanity. a humanist understanding everyone has certain rights and they need to be respected and that sort of thing forms a much more firm

basis for international cooperation would be my guess. could use that question is that one thing about super organisms is as it becomes more powerful, each individual within the super organism becomes her less independent and less capable. says some colonies cannot defend the colony's are reproduced and everyone has a specialized job. in a couple months ago of go publishing a paper saying they shrank by 10%. i know why. because of the super organism we can be lazy. they have to make their own tools or shelter we just have to do one simple little

job. to save you want to see the most to bid ignorance impossible, live-in ap factory. when you do that all day you don't have much left in your brain but stupidity and makes a valid point*. if we want to be fully rounded and in gauged we need to use our major time wisely to cultivate our minds. that is a point* where thinking about. thank you. [applause]

>> on locations university of chicago where we talk with several professors of university your also authors now we're pleased to be joined by david straus of there of the living constitution also teaching law at the university of chicago law school how do you define the living constitution? >> good question. the living constitution is the idea that is controversial but it shouldn't be constitutional is the idea that the constitution as it was drafted in 1787 and amended a few times since then it is pass to be evolves over time in order to keep up with changing circumstances and ideas. >> host: what do you consider to be the evolution? >> several examples. throughout the first hundred

years of the 19th century the idea was the federal government could be very small and federal and state governments play of a limited role in the economy. as the country became less agrarian ideas about that changed with the state legislatures and congress start to play a more active role, at first the supreme court did not like at and struck down those laws as unconstitutional but over time they came to see those laws are necessary to change "the view" gradually to the law that we have now that allows for the extensive coal by the federal government and the states to regulate the economy. >> host: what is original as some? >> guest: the idea one way or another the answer too any issues about the issues we have today can be found by going back to the time the constitution was crafted

when amendments were ratified to see what they thought back then to take their ideas to apply them to today's problems. >> host: does it work? >> i don't think so. it is not a workable scheme for a couple of reasons. it is hard to figure out what they were thinking back then. that is what historians do and they disagree and sometimes they say they were confused back then and were not clear what they were doing. the deeper problems are even if we thought what they thought back then they have bad ideas of the society in with the united states was founded, a small country, 4 million people less than the population of chicago and clinging to the east coast and in a rural country that is a whole different world even if we knew what they thought about that world it would not tell us what they thought about

our world. >> host: professor, what is a controversial part of a living constitution? >> what people find constant -- controversial with a fair concern the fed is in fixed and does that mean today what it always has then someone is changing it. that makes us nervous because we think that someone will be a bunch of judges who will impose their own views on the rest of us. that is a legitimate concern >> host: and 10 skelly of former law professor, a friend of yours? >> an acquaintance. >> host: he would not agree with your premise? >> guest: i think that is right he says he is an original list. he and a stance original is some doesn't work all the time and has said i am an original list but not crazy

there is times a viable part when it is necessary. >> host: hasn't he used the phrase a dead constitution? >> for those that believe in the living constitution. if the constitution is changing then tell me who is changing it and why and i am not sure i want to be on board with changing it in there is a concern that needs to be addressed. >> host: how do glean the founding fathers' intent is that important? >> there is a couple of things. what you are looking for is the underlying principles of the country with respect to diversity a limited government that protects government but active to do the job of governing. at that level of principle

it is absolutely relevant and i think all of us would agree with. when you get to specifics of environmental protection our occupational safety or labor relations or things like that, then that is the question the founders need to know because it will be hard and even if you do it doesn't tell about our world. >> host: those amendments that have passed isn't that a way to make the constitution a living document? >> it would be in theory but if you look how it is amended and look at the hoops you have to jump through it is not practical. you need two-thirds of each house of congress only to star than three-quarters of the states to ratify. the fact is we have not used to the amendment process to do a lot of the things we

have done to change the constitution most have come about in other ways and often what happens is we change things then we amend the constitution after we have already changed and then the amendments catch up with the changes already made. >> host: do you teach a living constitution here? >> guest: i teach the law and i don't try to say one view or the other but i tried to play it straight and show my students this is the law and the questions it raises and here is what you need to think about as a well-informed a lawyer and 21st century and the judgments that you try to make. >> host: the cover of your book, what is it trying to signify? >> guest: a tree in the process of growing in different directions but the growth of the tree is

necessary and something we should celebrate and not be afraid of. >> host: would you foresee a rating of the constitution? >> guest: i don't think so. one of the remarkable things is we have done very well with the constitution we have precisely because we figured out ways it can evolves that meet the problems that change with society but doesn't turn it over to a bunch of judges to do what they want. and this is in no small part because of the genius of the framers of the document that is adaptable enough to not put us in a straitjacket and why it has worked so well for so many years. >> host: you have many years the government service? >> guest: the justice department in the office of legal counsel and solicitor general under the aetna carter initially and then under president reagan.

>> host: what courses are you teaching right now? >> guest: constitutional law, federal jurisdiction, and administrative law, and a first-year course on legal theory designed to introduce the students to the basic operation of our system. >> host: is this your first book? >> guest: my first book. >> host: published by oxford university press press, professor strauss teaches at the university of chicago. >> let me mention one book infidel. a somalian born woman who was brought up and the war-torn area and the middle

eastern countries finally escaped to have political asylum and became a member of parliament to prepare she was involved based on a movie that they then produced the harshness of islam and the way it is swept under the rug in western countries and this resulted in being assassinated in heart of -- holland. to be put under protective custody for several weeks but the basic premise of the book is number one, the country's with the middle east is being held back buy

the reprint of islam because of the harsh treatment of women and 50% of the population to reach their full potential and also western countries by exempting that extreme version the are encouraging fundamentalist islam to take cold and be a part of western democracy with their mistreatment of women and killing as with the female mutilation. so she calls on western democracies to work toward better assimilation and integration with the muslim

countries. >> how did you selected the narrative in the book? >> we were looking at narrative is. that was known as south carolinian is. he is known in british abolitionist circles and been identified in trans-atlantic connections but was from south carolina and defected to the british line during the revolution and then went to canada and nova scotia and africa and so people like that a collection of those people

then to put it together to see the connections. >> then what do see? >> 38 of those people were jockeys and two of the seven individuals where slaves to confederate forces in the coastal war of the carolinas. they were slaves to the confederate forces. but the bigger connection is we are glad to escape with slavery all firmly identify themselves with their relationship to where they are from but they would not

let someone take that away from them. they would not -- not identified themselves as african. but the rest of them distinctly wanted to claim of part of history at and that was the most powerful of the 20th century from the people's network. >> which story resonates the most with you? >> they speak to me when of the 18th century narratives, a very short document that you don't quite know the from the bonds but we know that she played the violin who was she and what was she about?

and then another 20th century writer is a very old man 1914 sunday had a child then one of his famous lines is many people will talk of better sides of slavery and deal with good line -- demand but only thing good was the emancipation and proclamation. they all spoke to me in different ways. >> host: what do you hope readers will learn from this book? >> i hope they learn to get rid of their expectations. those 18th-century narratives their lives as slavery there also define

them, their memoirs are also about religious awakening and freedom they found through the spiritual awakening. that doesn't fit what you think that should be about. and i respect at and i learned from that to listen to the narrative written. they depict buy land and stressing schemes their testimony of witnessing and i hope they come away with respect for the political and personal goals from their community and those of the two terrifying and powerful near dallas. one of those is anonymous and he was a fugitive ran

the story was published. >> fell last three, and the other two jake of what is in that narrative because i would say they had good things to say about slavery but wasn't testimony to fireman's not a lot of love they experienced but almost was nostalgic in particular and that is very hard and fascinating to see why he would lead articulate in such a way. some my readers come away from it was different for each individual.