Posted on 04/25/2012 4:19:59 AM PDT by dennisw
The grandfather of the green movement – West Country scientist James Lovelock – has admitted that his previous predictions of the impact of climate change may have been “alarmist”.
Professor Lovelock, who lives in Devon, advanced his Gaia theory, that the Earth is a self-regulating living being, in the 1960s and warned that rates of industrialisation meant the world could over-heat with catastrophic effects.
But the 92-year-old environmental scientist has conceded that while climate change is still happening, it is not developing as quickly as he once forecast.
In an interview with msnbc.com, he admitted: “I made a mistake”.
He added: “The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing.
“We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear cut, but it hasn’t happened.
“The climate is doing its usual tricks. There’s nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world. [The temperature] has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising – carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that.”
He added: “We will have global warming, but it’s been deferred a bit.”
Professor Lovelock is currently writing a third book which he said would not back-track on climate change but would concede that forecasts had been “extrapolating too far”.
It will suggest how people can change their habits to co-ordinate with the Earth’s natural systems.
The environmental scientist said that he was not alone in getting the impact of climate change wrong, suggesting that other commentators, including former vice president Al Gore, also thought the effects would be felt sooner.
Professor Lovelock has been a respected member of the academic community for decades.
n the 1960s, he discovered the presence of harmful CFCs in the atmosphere.
He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974 and in 1990 was awarded the first Amsterdam Prize for the Environment.
The same year he became a CBE and in 2003 was awarded a Companion of Honour for his achievements in science.
Time magazine named him as one 13 leaders and visionaries in an article on Heroes of the Environment.
But his views have also sparked controversy – advocating nuclear power as a means of reducing carbon emissions and condemning the technology’s inefficiency and visual impact of wind turbines.
This 92 year old dude is the original greenie. The originator of the Gaia theory. He is semi-repenting here for giving birth to such monsters as AlGore
oooooooooooooooooops....never mind (after spending billions and trillions on global warming pap)
So his “apology” is a “nevermind...” This worthless, old-fool, anti-scientist has caused much suffering and caused many societies to waste an incredible amount of money on this BS. He should roast. What an insect...a destructive societal termite.
He and I agree on one thing...........nuclear power
Thank you Perfesser Dipshit.
CO2 has gone from ~0.03% to ~0.04% of Earth's atmosphere in the last 50 years.
I smoke. If I quit, I probably wouldnt notice till it got to 12 or 13 %. not worth worrying about.
It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.
Thomas Sowell
http://www.daviesand.com/Choices/Precautionary_Planning/New_Data/
Looks to me like Gaia's warming cycles happen every 100,000 years or so, like clockwok, and Gaia doesn't seem to care about population or industrialization. She just likes to get hot and cold now and then, and the CO2 likes to follow along.
How come the alarmists avoid such scientific data like the plague? Doesn't fit their template? No money to be made?
Anybody know if the interview with MSNBC where he admitted mistake is available in print or video.
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