American_Jihad
Flaming Libs/Koranimals
James Lovelock: The UK should be going mad for fracking
6/15/12 By Leo Hickman
Scientist James Lovelock is the man behind Gaia theory, and once predicted doom for our climate. He discusses nuclear (good), wind power (bad) and why fracking is the future
James Lovelock is packing up. In one sense, the celebrated scientist and environmental author is simply moving house. Boxes and piles of unsorted papers scatter the floor of his home and "experimental station" located in a wooded valley on the Cornwall-Devon border. But, in another sense, at the age of 92, he is finally leaving his life of scientific study and invention behind; a career that included the formulation of the Gaia theory, his highly influential hypothesis that the Earth is a self-regulating, single organism. His personal effects, notebooks and equipment are being logged and archived ahead of entering London's Science Museum's collection later this year.
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Indeed, earlier this year he admitted to MSNBC in an interview reported around the world with somewhat mocking headlines along the lines of "Doom-monger recants", that he had been "extrapolating too far" in reaching such a conclusion and had made a "mistake" in claiming to know with such certainty what will happen to the climate.
But Lovelock is relaxed about how this reversal might be perceived. He says being allowed to change your mind and follow the evidence is one of the liberating marvels of being an independent scientist, something he has revelled in since leaving Nasa, his last full-time employer, in the late 1960s.
He says it will be the topic of his latest book, due out next year, which has the working title Adventures of a Lone Scientist. He smiles: "My publisher keeps telling me: 'Can't you do a more cheery book this time?'"
Moving house has handed Lovelock the chance to pore over the everyday objects resulting from his life's work, most of which have been in the attic for decades. He picks up an undated invitation to MI5's Christmas dinner at a restaurant in London. In his other hand, he holds an old envelope stamped: "On Her Majesty's Service: Top secret." (As a freelance scientist, he's worked for many organisations.) There are get-well cards from the likes of the astronomer Carl Sagan, sent when he had heart problems in the early 1980s.
He finally finds the letter from Nasa: "I'd read science-fiction since I was a small kid, so when I got a letter from the director of space flight at Nasa I was gobsmacked. I realised I didn't want to spend the rest of my life as a civil servant, and I didn't like the idea of having everything planned right up to my retirement. My boss [at the National Institute for Medical Research in London] said I'd be a fool to ignore it and out of all that, ultimately, came Gaia."
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Lovelock says he's doubtful that internationalist efforts of this sort achieve much: "Whenever the UN puts its finger in, it seems to become a mess. The burden of my thoughts are very much that the climate situation is more complex than we at present are capable of handling, or possibly even in the future. You can't treat it as a scientific problem alone. You have to involve the whole world, and then there's the time constant of human activity. Look at how long ago the Kyoto treaty was 15 years ago and damn all has been done. The human time constant is very slow. You don't get major changes in under 50-100 years, and climate doesn't wait for that."
James Lovelock: The UK should be going mad for fracking | Environment | The Guardian
6/15/12 By Leo Hickman
Scientist James Lovelock is the man behind Gaia theory, and once predicted doom for our climate. He discusses nuclear (good), wind power (bad) and why fracking is the future
James Lovelock is packing up. In one sense, the celebrated scientist and environmental author is simply moving house. Boxes and piles of unsorted papers scatter the floor of his home and "experimental station" located in a wooded valley on the Cornwall-Devon border. But, in another sense, at the age of 92, he is finally leaving his life of scientific study and invention behind; a career that included the formulation of the Gaia theory, his highly influential hypothesis that the Earth is a self-regulating, single organism. His personal effects, notebooks and equipment are being logged and archived ahead of entering London's Science Museum's collection later this year.
---
Indeed, earlier this year he admitted to MSNBC in an interview reported around the world with somewhat mocking headlines along the lines of "Doom-monger recants", that he had been "extrapolating too far" in reaching such a conclusion and had made a "mistake" in claiming to know with such certainty what will happen to the climate.
But Lovelock is relaxed about how this reversal might be perceived. He says being allowed to change your mind and follow the evidence is one of the liberating marvels of being an independent scientist, something he has revelled in since leaving Nasa, his last full-time employer, in the late 1960s.
He says it will be the topic of his latest book, due out next year, which has the working title Adventures of a Lone Scientist. He smiles: "My publisher keeps telling me: 'Can't you do a more cheery book this time?'"
Moving house has handed Lovelock the chance to pore over the everyday objects resulting from his life's work, most of which have been in the attic for decades. He picks up an undated invitation to MI5's Christmas dinner at a restaurant in London. In his other hand, he holds an old envelope stamped: "On Her Majesty's Service: Top secret." (As a freelance scientist, he's worked for many organisations.) There are get-well cards from the likes of the astronomer Carl Sagan, sent when he had heart problems in the early 1980s.
He finally finds the letter from Nasa: "I'd read science-fiction since I was a small kid, so when I got a letter from the director of space flight at Nasa I was gobsmacked. I realised I didn't want to spend the rest of my life as a civil servant, and I didn't like the idea of having everything planned right up to my retirement. My boss [at the National Institute for Medical Research in London] said I'd be a fool to ignore it and out of all that, ultimately, came Gaia."
---
Lovelock says he's doubtful that internationalist efforts of this sort achieve much: "Whenever the UN puts its finger in, it seems to become a mess. The burden of my thoughts are very much that the climate situation is more complex than we at present are capable of handling, or possibly even in the future. You can't treat it as a scientific problem alone. You have to involve the whole world, and then there's the time constant of human activity. Look at how long ago the Kyoto treaty was 15 years ago and damn all has been done. The human time constant is very slow. You don't get major changes in under 50-100 years, and climate doesn't wait for that."
James Lovelock: The UK should be going mad for fracking | Environment | The Guardian