James Lovelock [wiki] is a climate scientist (he was the first to detect widespread presence of CFCs in the atmosphere) and a maverick (he proposed the Gaia Hypothesis, which proposes that earth, and everything living and non-living on it are part of a complex interacting system that can be though of as a single organism).
In 1965, James Lovelock predicted that environment will be the biggest challenge in the 21st century. And in general, he was right.
In an interview by Decca Aitkenhead of The Guardian, Lovelock explains why global warming had passes a tipping point, catastrophe is inevitable, and we are all doomed:
"It's just too late for it," he says. "Perhaps if we'd gone along routes like that in 1967, it might have helped. But we don't have time. All these standard green things, like sustainable development, I think these are just words that mean nothing. I get an awful lot of people coming to me saying you can't say that, because it gives us nothing to do. I say on the contrary, it gives us an immense amount to do. Just not the kinds of things you want to do."
He dismisses eco ideas briskly, one by one. "Carbon offsetting? I wouldn't dream of it. It's just a joke. To pay money to plant trees, to think you're offsetting the carbon? You're probably making matters worse. You're far better off giving to the charity Cool Earth, which gives the money to the native peoples to not take down their forests." [...]
He saves his thunder for what he considers the emptiest false promise of all - renewable energy.
"You're never going to get enough energy from wind to run a society such as ours," he says. "Windmills! Oh no. No way of doing it. You can cover the whole country with the blasted things, millions of them. Waste of time."
Link (Photo: Eamonn McCabe)
Yeah, he seems like a real rational fellow.
I'd say that the guy is at least partly right, that the earth is more akin to a large complex organism, but this organism is a lot tougher and resilient than most in the global warming crowd believe.
Ice age? are you listening?
Dinosaurs? come back and eat us
And he goes on to say ""There have been seven disasters since humans came on the earth, very similar to the one that's just about to happen. I think these events keep separating the wheat from the chaff. And eventually we'll have a human on the planet that really does understand it and can live with it properly. That's the source of my optimism.""
And it looks like we'll be getting about 33,000 gallons/acre of biodiesel from algae in the near future.
It's probably true that we can't keep running this horrible society we've created, no matter what. But bad mouthing tree planting seems counter productive to me.
He forgets that there are lot of people out there in the world who believe everything is the way it is and it's OK because god is there for them.
In general, he was NOT right. The environment is getting lots of press, because of the hoax of "man-made global warming", but it is not a challenge when looking at the science. The Earth warms, the Earth cools, our miniscule poofing of pollution has little if nothing to do with it. The Sun is in charge.
"...today that theory forms the basis of almost all climate science.”
Huh? State any reference to REAL science that believes in that mother gaia crap. Maybe you should leave that final fantasy to Dr. Aki Ross and her buddy Dr. Sid.
I said nothing at all as to whether or not it reflected my own beliefs nor whether it was actually the basis for "REAL science."
i'd rather listen to mayer hillman any day. he may be nearly as extreme but at least he proposes some solutions. 'do more of what you want'. spoken like a true old white european male who's done scant else but that i shouldn't wonder. lovelock should just shut up, frankly.
What's a selfish fungus? A lot of fungi are very cooperative--- ask a lichen.
+1 +1 - win/win symbiosis for the moss and the fungus
It'd be nice if we humans had that sort of relationship w/ other living things for the most part, or at least +1 0 - we win, nothing loses
Unfortunately, parasitism +1 -1 is almost always the direction our activities take. Worth noting that the most successful parasites tend to not kill their hosts and if they do, they've got somewhere else to go and/or another form in their life-cycle.
Too bad kids-teens these days don't have much in the way of political power.. considering it's their future on the line and they have more ecological science background on all of this stuff than the average adult.
Grownups these days are all economy and no ecology.
What's a selfish fungus? A lot of fungi are very cooperative--- ask a lichen.
+1 +1 - win/win symbiosis for the moss and the fungus
It'd be nice if we humans had that sort of relationship w/ other living things for the most part, or at least +1 0 ..we win, nothing loses
Unfortunately, parasitism +1 -1 is almost always the direction our activities take. Worth noting that the most successful parasites tend to not kill their hosts and if they do, they've got somewhere else to go and/or another form in their life-cycle.
Too bad growing kids these days don't have much in the way of political power.. considering it's their future on the line and they have more ecological science background on all of this stuff than the average adult.
Grownups these days are all economy and no ecology.
"In 1965, James Lovelock predicted that environment will be the biggest challenge in the 21st century. And in general, he was right."
Wow. Isn't that just a TAD bit premature to judge? We are just a mere 8 years into the century and Alex has already decided that the environment will be the biggest challenge for the next 92 years! How can you possibly know that? It couldn't possibly be disease, famine, or war? Come on... I don't personally ascribe to global warming theory, but recognize there are some who do. Please act/speak rationally and tone down the hyperbole.
Well, you first kiddo. Try to off yourself in the compost pile so we can get something positive out of your life.
I guess it's easier to treat the planet like a giant trashcan if you figure you'll be dead and gone in a few years.
100 times as many say it is a HOAX or Junk Science
Actually the buzzword nowadays is "global climate change". That way, you can keep people needlessly alarmed at EVERY weather related story that makes the world press. Too hot? Humans are at fault! Too cold? Humans are at fault! Lotsa rain this year? Humans are at fault! Having a drought? Yup, you guessed it.
Nostra culpa, nostra culpa, nostra maxima culpa!
Just travel to China you will know that it is not a matter of 20 years of good life. It is all about tomorrow and next year. His judgment on the solutions make sense. But his suggestion (just enjoy while you can and assuming you will have 20 years) made him sound like just another spoiled American.