SocraticGadfly: Lovelock – one last chance to save earth

January 24, 2009

Lovelock – one last chance to save earth

The inventor of the Gaia hypothesis, James Lovelock, thinks we have but one last chance to save earth from our climate destructiveness.

In a wide-ranging interview with New Scientist, Lovelock, who calls himself an “optimistic pessimist,” calls carbon trading a business-driven scam, still supports nuclear power (but more as a boost for the developing world than addressing carbon emissions by the developed world), and says we could have mass extinctions.
I don't think humans react fast enough or are clever enough to handle what's coming up. … For the first time in its 3.5 billion years of existence, the planet has an intelligent, communicating species that can consider the whole system and even do things about it. They are not yet bright enough, they have still to evolve quite a way …

But, he called himself an “optimistic pessimist,” so it would be unfair not to finish his last sentence.
but they could become a very positive contributor to planetary welfare.

I’m a pessimist trying to be an optimist, but not fully there yet, when I think about this issue. Read the full story for m ore of Lovelock’s thoughts.

No comments: