There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive. Th… - David Attenborough

At a time when it's possible for thirty people to stand on the top of Everest in one day, Antarctica still remains a remote, lonely and desolate continent. A place where it's possible to see the splendours and immensities of the natural world at its most dramatic and, what's more, witness them almost exactly as they were, long, long before human beings ever arrived on the surface of this planet. Long may it remain so.

No sooner has one been pushed out of the nest then a second will follow, until there is only one left. And that's what happens nearly always in a pelican's nest. That being the case, it seems rather inefficient, not to say heartless, that the pelican should always lay three eggs. But the reason is that it's partly an insurance policy, in case something terrible happens to one or two of the chicks, there's always a third left to carry on. And partly because, very rarely, when the fishing is very good, it is possible to raise more than one chick.

Three and a half million years separate the individual who left these footprints in the sands of Africa from the one who left them on the moon. A mere blink in the eye of evolution. Using his burgeoning intelligence, this most successful of all mammals has exploited the environment to produce food for an ever-increasing population. In spite of disasters when civilisations have over-reached themselves, that process has continued, indeed accelerated, even today. Now mankind is looking for food, not just on this planet but on others. Perhaps the time has now come to put that process into reverse. Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps it's time we control the population to allow the survival of the environment.