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In the interview, Lovelock, originator of the “Gaia Hypothesis”, which suggests that the Earth can be treated as a self-regulating system like a living organism, and whose work on chlorofluorocarbons led to the ban on CFCs, insists that there is no time to reduce carbon emissions through an international agreement as was the case with the CFC ban. “Most of the ‘green’ stuff is verging on a gigantic scam,” he believes. “Carbon trading, with its huge government subsidies, is just what finance and industry wanted. It’s not going to do a damn thing about climate change, but it’ll make a lot of money for a lot of people and postpone the moment of reckoning,” he says. He also regards CO2 sequestering as “crazy” and “dangerous”.

Having caused consternation in some circles for advocating nuclear power as a more practical low-carbon generation process than renewables as far as Britain was concerned, he now says that while nuclear “is a way for the UK to solve its energy problems… it is not a global cure for climate change. It is too late for emissions reduction measures.”

The only way, Lovelock claims, that the human race can be saved is by the large-scale burying of charcoal made from agricultural vegetable waste. This usually rots down and releases most of the CO2 fixed by the plants when they are growing, but if it were burned with low oxygen levels it would produce charcoal which could be ploughed back into the ground and would not be able to be broken down in the same way. The process would produce a biofuel which farmers could sell, and as a result a subsidy would not be necessary. “This is the one thing we can do that will make a difference,” Lovelock says, “but I bet they won’t do it.”

Lovelock is deeply pessimistic about the future of the human race. He believes there are already too many people on Earth to survive two degrees of warming, while with four degrees of warming, the planet would not be able to sustain more than a tenth of its current human population, because it would be impossible to grow enough food. “The number of people remaining at the end of the century will probably be a billion or less,” he says. “I don’t think humans react fast enough or are clever enough to handle what’s coming up. Kyoto was 11 years ago. Virtually nothing’s been done except endless talk and meetings.”

You can read the entire interview with James Lovelock by Gaia Vince in New Scientist, January 23 issue.

Photo of James Lovelock from Wikimedia by Bruno Comby.

1. What’s the greenest grilling option? Electric and propane grills are definitely better than charcoal. If that’s your only option though, try using cleaner burning, natural charcoals. A great list can be found here at GreenYour.com. If you’ve got your heart set on the flavor that comes from grilling over wood, Woodflame grills were the most eco-friendly option I could find.

2. Skip the meat. As if you didn’t need another reason to lower your meat intake, I also recently came across this health-related article on the 5 Worst Foods to Barbecue. (Hint, none of them are tofu.) You can replace the burgers and hot dogs with some vegetarian knock-offs (respectively, I recommend Amy’s burgers which come in a variety of flavors, and Lightlife Tofu Pups.) Or you could even try making your own ahead of time. I have to admit, I’ve never tried grilling my black bean or white bean burgers, but it’s worth a shot!

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Summer is here, and for many, that means time to start cooking outdoors. For some, bottled gas (propane, most commonly) is a preferable choice for a number of reasons, while many others prefer to cook over charcoal. I'm not going to get into a long debate about which is the best. It's something like the 'paper-or-plastic' debate. Given some of the issues around the extraction and processing of propane, as well as it's non-renewability compared to wood charcoal, I think that it's possible to make the case either way.

If you choose to cook over coals, there are some considerations that can help make your grilling a greener experience. A chimney starter is a simple, inexpensive, easy-to-use tool that quickly gives you coals ready for grilling. Most importantly, there is no need to rely on starter fuels to get a good fire for grilling. I was introduced to the chimney starter by a good friend several years ago. I was immediately drawn to the simplicity and efficiency of it. It concentrates the heat to start the coals more quickly and evenly than just lighting them in the grill. (Cooking celebrity Alton Brown famously even uses a chimney starter as a kind of concentrated mini-grill for quickly searing tuna. I haven't tried this myself yet, but I plan to, when I have a suitable opportunity. The recipe for Chimney Tuna Loin is fairly quick and easy, but requires a high quality piece of tuna.)

The chimney starter is a simple tool. Very basically, it is an open ended metal cylinder with a grille in the middle, and a handle on one side. Stuff a single sheet of crumpled newspaper into the bottom, and fill the top part with as much charcoal as you need, then light the newspaper. The paper serves as kindling to get the coals started, and the cylindrical shape keeps the heat focused on the coals themselves. After a few minutes, you'll have flames coming out the top, and the coals are ready to go.

In addition to how you start your coals, you can also make greener choices in your selection of the charcoal itself.

First of all, choose natural, or lump, charcoal rather than processed briquettes. Briquettes have undergone more fabrication, so there's more energy spent to make them. They also have various ingredients in addition to charcoal, binders which hold them in their shape, for example, as well as sprayed-on hydrocarbons which are used to make the "easy light" or "match light" briquettes. Some other things that can be found in briquettes include: coal dust, starch, sodium nitrate, limestone and borax. If you really want to get into it, I found that there is a website with lots of information specifically about lump charcoal, and even has reviews of different brands of charcoal.

Secondly, look for the origin of the charcoal. A couple years ago, I bought a bag of lump charcoal rather than briquettes, and was proud of myself for doing so until I saw that it came from Brazil. (Wonderful, someone's found a way to make even more money off of clearcutting rainforests.) Charcoal isn't something that you need to import from thousands of miles away. I've since found a store that carries charcoal that is domestically manufactured, and that is what I've used since then.

Lastly, if you are sticking with hamburgers, but have decided to try some locally-raised, grass-fed beef, remember that there is typically less fat in it than there is in most typical supermarket ground beef, and you should adjust how you cook it in order to have it cook properly.