James Lovelock is in the media again, proving that anyone who thinks the IPCC is “alarmist” is sadly deluded. The excellent Marc Roberts’ Cantankerous Frank provides the necessary context… [See also BBC (with video) (audio), Guardian (one, two, three), Telegraph. H/t <2º].
Wow, Basil Brush gets his own comic!
I don't want to agree with Lovelock, but I predict some organic spambot will shortly suport his theory…
Basil's tail was a different colour, if I recall correctlly.
And hasn't Mr. Derek aged?
In all seriousness, I do wonder what JL hopes to achieve, if anything, with his 'direst of the dire' predictions. Perhaps he assumes if he says something shocking enough things might change? Perhaps he's reached the curmudgeon stage and doesn't care any more? Perhaps a bit of both?
Leastways, I doubt our species will ever be knocked back far enough not to rise again. That isn't necessarily an encouraging thought, but if we follow Flannery and Diamond we might hope the reborn society will be a lot wiser…
Lovelock's judgments on fellow scientists are certainly curmudgeonly, in effect saying: " In my day science was a vocation, but now it's a career and so you produce results to please the boss." Ah, the good old days. He appears to take the UEA emails at the kind of face value that denialism has engineered for them, though he doesn't like to pry by reading them himself. Nigel Lawson, on the other hand, is a sceptic who has his full respect!
Paradoxically Lovelock seems to me to have a good deal in common with deniers. He is dismissive of greens and environmentalists who hope we might be able to stave off the worst of what lies ahead. "Enjoy yourselves while you still can and don't worry" appears to be his philosophy. I can't take him seriously.
(And I might observe that with the newish 'intense debate' system and using the 'No-Script' script-blocker on Firefox as I am, this is the page with the most 'script permission' requirements I've yet to encounter!). 16 no less!)