by semper occultus » Sun Feb 12, 2006 6:09 pm
Interview: Jasper Gerard meets James Lovelock<br>We're all doomed, so to hell with wind farms <br> <br> <br>Off to a Greenpeace rally via the bottle bank in your eco-car, converted to run on organic carrot juice? Don't bother. Instead, go for a burn-up in a Ferrari, crank up the heating and wait for the end of the world. <br>This seems to be the message of James Lovelock, celebrated scientist and creator of the Gaia theory that taught us to think of the planet as a living organism. He declares it is too late to save civilisation as we know it, so save yourself. Find a mountain, perhaps on the island of Cornwall, before the floods arrive — London, he tells me, could be under the North Sea within 50 years. <br><br> <br> <br>Gulp. Is this some swivel-eyed old boy with a sandwich board assuring us the end of the world is nigh? Nope. Lovelock is one of Britain's most revered thinkers. Sure, his Gaia theory — named during a Wiltshire walk by Lovelock's friend William Golding after the Greek goddess of the earth — was considered cranky back in 1979. But it is now the paradigm in which science is done. <br><br>It holds that the planet, far from being just a ball of lumpen matter like Mars, is living and self-regulating: a series of connected systems control conditions; crucially including climate. But so badly has man treated his mistress, Gaia, that she can no longer heal herself. <br><br>Lovelock says global warming is caused by industry belching out too much carbon dioxide, farming that eats away at forests, and too many damn people who, because of increased wealth, are pumping out more emissions through everything from their cars to their fridges. The great thaw is now so advanced that the sun's rays are no longer being cooled by the whiteness of the icecaps, as they are melting away. <br><br>Lovelock is no eco-nut with personal hygiene issues: he supports nuclear power and once worked for MI5 as "Q" — inventing whizzo gadgets to spy on Ruskies.<br>contd.....<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2024911,00.html">www.timesonline.co.uk/art...11,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>