(Sorry, I've been off the air for some time.) Clinton Hammond said, And hopefully, for the sake of the planet, that'll be the last time that evolution ever decides to deal the consiousness card...

But it seems to me that it's only consciousness observing it that gives any significance at all to whether the Earth is forested or desert, over- or under-populated, clean or polluted. Without people who gives a dicky-bird what the planet is like?