Having had fun with the Dork Side, I suppose I really ought to dunk on everyone's favourite uncle, James "Gaia" Lovelock. Who has recently pegged out, though he had a good run.But I think my Junk from von S is a fair summary of where he stood on GW: he was confused. I'm not sure his final appearence in Is Bruno Latour a useless ponce? really represents his true value, but so it goes.
And - having just checked wiki - who could forget his spectacularly ill-judged "We need a more authoritative world... You've got to have a few people with authority who you trust who are running it... Even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while". Sigh; we're back to the philosopher-kings so beloved of folks like him and Jim "back to Plato" Al-Khalili. If, say, Farage had said that the Graun would be all over him; but because it is cute-n-cuddly Lovelock, the Graun just rolls over.
I liked Gaia, though.
Refs
* Claim: A new bombshell report found that 96% of ConUS NOAA temperature is corrupted (false).
Your favorite website WUWT is also celebrating his life more than his passing: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/07/27/rip-james-lovelock-the-former-climate-activist-who-admitted-he-was-wrong/
ReplyDelete"The Climate Activist Who Admitted He was Wrong" :-). Well, you can pick what you like out of what Lovelock said and get almost any answer...
ReplyDeleteEverybody liked Gaia , coming out as it did back when models that were trivial but true represented a refreshing change of pace, and his electron capture ionization detector was almost as universally admired as the Japanese woodworking tools in The Whole Earth Catalog.
ReplyDeleteHe aged remarkably well.