Solstice Goat
Frater Aegagrus
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2012
- Location
- Seattle, WA
READ MOREFormer global-warming alarmist and “Gaia Guru” Dr. James Lovelock is once again doing combat with his erstwhile comrades in the “green” movement, dishing out scorn for the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which recently issued its latest dire global-warming predictions. In an interview with The Guardian on March 30 and another with the BBC on April 3, Lovelock, the geophysicist best known as the originator of the Gaia Hypothesis, said environmentalism has “become a religion” for many, and suggested that the IPCC has virtually copied his own exaggerated predictions from eight years ago — views that he has since repudiated.
The 94-year-old author, inventor, and former NASA scientist who is one of the most famous founders of the environmental movement also reiterated his support for natural gas “fracking” and his contempt for advocates of wind and solar energy, which he says will never provide sufficient energy for modern society. He also took swipes at the massive government funding of global-warming research, which has corrupted and politicized the science.
The IPCC’s report, Lovelock told BBC’s Jeremy Paxman, “is very similar to the statements I made in my book about 8 years ago, called The Revenge of Gaia. It’s almost as if they’ve copied it.” The following exchange then ensued:
Isn't that something? The scientist that started the cult now realizes that his theory was flawed, but the zealots have run off with his gospel and continue to preach it.Jeremy Paxman: Sure. But you then, after publishing these apocalyptic predictions, you then retracted them.
James Lovelock: Well, that’s my privilege. You see, I’m an independent scientist. I’m not funded by some government department or commercial body or anything like that. If I make a mistake, then I can go public with it. And you have to, because it is only by making mistakes that you can move ahead.
Reminds me of the whole Alpha Dog theory of wolves that was recanted by the author on his death bed, but that would be a post for the PETS section.