On CNN 1989: Ted Turner, Carl Sagan & Flat Earth by MGTV Channel

Video Transcript:

Turner Home Entertainment presents a dialogue, a conversation with Carl Sagan and Ted Turner. Carl Sagan is one of the greatest minds on this planet. I'm grateful that he's here to share some of his knowledge with us. Carl, pleasure to have you here this evening. Thank you. We're destroying those on the layer. We're heating up the earth. We're destroying our forests. We're poisoning the groundwater with radioactive waste and pesticides. How do we ever get in this mess? Well, we got into the mess by not paying attention and by business as usual. Is there any way out? People have to inform themselves. They have to understand these issues and those photographs of the earth, there is no evidence for it. And where there's no evidence, I say, keep an open mind. That's interesting and I certainly agree with that. How has that first started? What do you think of the greatest benefits that have evolved accrued from our expenditures in our exploration of space? I think it's a disgrace. The US has not launched one spacecraft to the moon or planets. This is stupid. Well, I mean, I say it all the time. A transparent hoax. You know, Mercata projection map of the world got enormous support. Of course. Of course, people went for that because the right questions weren't asked. And television, by the way, was full of... We're just giving the American people what they want. Yes. Another problem that we're certainly all aware of is the bloated arsenals of nuclear weapons. Which is terrific. I'm all for it. Do you think we can get rid of these nuclear arsenals? And how do we go about doing it? Gotta be the solution, too. Well, let me ask you this question. Are you a socialist? I'm not sure what a socialist is. Well, I believe that the time travel seems to be feasible. Well, that really does raise some interesting possibilities. Do you want to watch out for the infinite rest? Oh, I don't think there's anybody on this planet that has better credentials to answer this next question than you do. Do you think that there's life anywhere else in the universe? Well, first of all... Are you a socialist? Friend of mine, Kip Thorn, who's a specialist in gravitation theory at Caltech. You could take a few friends of yours and we could go back in the past and try and see if we couldn't live with the Indians a couple of hundred years ago before the White Man came. They don't know about national sovereignty. That's something they never heard of. Carl, do we have reason to be hopeful about the future? Well, do you... How do you... Do you... Do you... Well, I think it's, you know, I agree with you. With grotesque. We ought to be marching for the environment. It's very stupid. It helped do away with segregation and it helped do away with the Vietnam War. The thing is immensely stupid. What can we do to have a hopeful future? The height of human arrogance. Well, what's your personal opinion? You can plan trees. Well, what's your personal opinion? Nobody can do whatever the hell I want and that's worth its weight in gold. What's your personal opinion? My wife, Andrea, and I have been arrested before and I'm sorry I didn't say that. Haven't seen any poor people on this paper, so your television networks lately. Well, that's a good point. What's your personal opinion? We're in very bad trouble if we don't understand the planet we're trying to say. And it's clear. I know, I mean, I've seen it. But now, the out of term was a real pleasure to have you here.