Green Options

In a recent interview in Britain’s New Scientist magazine, scientist James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia Hypothesis and the man whose work on CFCs led to their being banned, says that he believes that at least 90% of the human population will be wiped out by the end of the century as a direct result of climate change.

James Lovelock’s Gaia theory, that the Earth is a single living organism, has been invoked countless times by environmentalists. In their uses (and abuses) of it, the theory becomes evidence for humanity’s connection with nature and so our responsibility to treat nature with care.

In fact, Lovelock is anything but an “environmentalist” in the traditional sense. Nor is he a staunch advocate for rigorous conservation and “dehumanization” of the planet, at least in his first book, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979). He quite often criticizes as fatuous and downright silly many environmentalists’ claims, using evidence gathered from his work in the sciences.

One passage in Gaia struck me as extremely provocative despite being written nearly thirty years ago. Discussing the atmospheric gases, specifically those produced by human industry, Lovelock writes,

In our persistent self-imposed alienation from nature, we tend to think that our industrial products are not ‘natural’. In fact, they are just as natural as all the other chemicals of the Earth, for they have been made by us, who surely are living creatures. They may of course be aggressive and dangerous, like nerve gases, but no more so than the toxin manufactured by the botulinus bacillus.1

Renowned climate scientist James Lovelock says humanity has now passed the point of no return when it comes to climate change. There’s nothing we can do to stop the climate train, he believes, so we should start getting ready to adapt to life on a hotter, more forbidding planet.