Climate science maverick James Lovelock believes catastrophe is
inevitable, carbon offsetting is a joke and ethical living a scam. So
what would he do?
By Decca Aitkenhead/The Guardian March 1, 2008
In 1965 executives at Shell wanted to know what the
world would look like in the year 2000. They consulted a range of
experts, who speculated about fusion-powered hovercrafts and "all sorts
of fanciful technological stuff". When the oil company asked the
scientist James Lovelock, he predicted that the main problem in 2000
would be the environment. "It will be worsening then to such an extent
that it will seriously affect their business," he said.
"And of course," Lovelock says, with a smile 43 years later, "that's almost exactly what's happened."
Lovelock has been dispensing predictions from his one-man laboratory
in an old mill in Cornwall since the mid-1960s, the consistent accuracy
of which have earned him a reputation as one of Britain's most
respected - if maverick - independent scientists. Working alone since
the age of 40, he invented a device that detected CFCs, which helped
detect the growing hole in the ozone layer, and introduced the Gaia
hypothesis, a revolutionary theory that the Earth is a self-regulating
super-organism. Initially ridiculed by many scientists as new age
nonsense, today that theory forms the basis of almost all climate
science.
For decades, his advocacy of nuclear power appalled
fellow environmentalists - but recently increasing numbers of them have
come around to his way of thinking. His latest book, The Revenge of
Gaia, predicts that by 2020 extreme weather will be the norm, causing
global devastation; that by 2040 much of Europe will be Saharan; and
parts of London will be underwater. The most recent Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report deploys less dramatic language -
but its calculations aren't a million miles away from his...
Full story: 'Enjoy life while you can'
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