Lovelock says we are already too late

Miyazaki

BBC News - Today - Lovelock: 'We can't save the planet'

Pretty depressing read to be honest. I have read most of Lovelock's books and think he is a genius.

Wild Weasel

He always was a bit of a fruit cake, but interesting nonetheless.

At least being an old school scientist, he's not happy with the garbage that's being done in science's name these days.

From a recent Guardian interview with him: [On the subject of the leaked CRU 'climategate' emails:]

On the influence of vested interests:

Continued:

James Lovelock on the value of sceptics and why Copenhagen was doomed | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Miyazaki

Have you read Gaia: a new look at life on Earth? Its a really good book.

DPinBucks

I have a lot of time for Lovelock. His Gaia idea has been widely misunderstood as some kind of new-age mysticism, when in fact it’s simply an acknowledgement that life, the oceans, the land and the atmosphere are all part of one big interactive whole. He originally emphasised the stabilising effects, but now realises it can get out of control, too.

I think he wishes now he’d thought up some less evocative name.

Miyazaki

Yeah I know. I totally agree.

Wild Weasel

No I haven't. Although I've read books that are influenced by his ideas like the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.

DPinBucks

I don't follow that.

Foundation preceded Gaia by a quarter of a century.

And anyway I'm not sure I see the connection. Foundation's psychohistory describes purely human societies; a kind of quantified mob psychology. Gaia disregards human activity per se; its original idea was to try and demonstrate a self-correcting process within the Earth's inter-connected physical systems. Psychohistory couldn't cope with the unforeseen (the Mule), whereas Gaia is a mechanism specifically hypothesised to counter it.

Wild Weasel

The 4th and 5th books in the series, Foundation's Edge (1982) and Foundation and Earth (1984) talk about Gaia. It's ages since I've read them & I've not read the prequel yet either.