James Lovelock: 'enjoy life while you can: in 20 years global warming will hit the fan'

The Guardian ^ | February 29, 2008 | Decca Aitkenhead

[2ndDivisionVet]

The climate science maverick believes catastrophe is inevitable, carbon offsetting is a joke and ethical living a scam. So what would he do?

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....

[2ndDivisionVet]

Old article, but I love how he skewers their nonsense while still quaffing Kool-Aid himself.

[P-Marlowe]

Maybe the fan will cool it off.

[2ndDivisionVet]

James Lovelock: ‘Fudging data is a sin against science’
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/mar/29/james-lovelock

[MNDude]

Actually, we have a lot less time left than 20 years.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2006/01/27/algore_we_have_ten_years_left_before_earth_cooks

[2ndDivisionVet]

If Al told me it was snowing I’d put on shorts and flip-flops and head to the pool.

[Mr. K]

i think thats what they said 20 years ago too

[gaijin]

Remember when “Sting” trundled out onto stage his personal toy Amazon chieftain, and then whined about how there would ABSOLUTELY be NO Brazil rainforest AT ALL in 10 years...?

And that was about 20 years ago?

Remember?

[plain talk]

"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."

It's one thing to predict calamity decades from now based on lies and misinformation but an entirely different thing to look at a past prediction that didn't come true and then lie about clearly observable facts. These are the kind of people that will tell you the sky is bright green with a straight face when you can clearly observe that it is blue.

[SpaceBar]

Global warmists seem to have all the conviction, enthusiasm, and rationality as those who followed Marshall Applewhite to paradise.

[goodnesswins]

Please bring us some global warming....NOW!!

[mylife]

‘Fudging data is a sin against science’

Agreed.
That is just what Al Gore did with “An inconvenient truth”

[gaijin]

"This rich honky pays me to sit here
with this huge thing I don't usually wear..."

[Navy Patriot]

If Al told me it was snowing I’d put on shorts and flip-flops and head to the pool.

Interestingly, pretty much everyplace Agore goes, it snows.

[acapesket]

15 days..9 snowstorms… and whaaaat?

[Billthedrill]

...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...

Oh, boy. That would be news to every climate scientist I've ever met, including the ones who still believe in anthropogenic global warming...er, sorry, "climate change". It's a religion, yes, but not that kind of a religion.

It is a fantastically complicated system, yes, and it very definitely shows self-regulation, but "organic" is only an adjective best reserved for mystics and children. "Mother" Gaia isn't going to wipe your nose or change your diaper, but she sure as hell will kill you.

[mylife]

This guy is a nut.
“perhaps if we had taken action in 1967”

Ummm James... we did.
It’s called the EPA and it has become a monster.

[gaijin]

" 'Rainforest GONE in 10 years', ya got it..? Screw
that up onstage in front of those cameras, and it's
NO CASH, and my roadies grab you by the throat,
right about HERE..."

[Optimist]

actually it doesn’t matter what the climate is because in 20 years the US economy will have collapsed and that will be the least of our problems.

[hinckley buzzard]

Since 2008 Lovelock has essentially recanted all his old New Age BS. This article is of historical interest but reflects nothing of the present day. IDK why it was posted now.

[Billthedrill]

Since 2008 Lovelock has essentially recanted all his old New Age BS.

You are correct, and I should have said that specifically. Thanks.