James Lovelock Quotes - Page 2

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• Only rarely do we see beyond the needs of humanity, and he linked this blindness to our Christian and humanist infrastructure. It arose 2,000 years ago and was then benign, and we were no significant threat to Gaia. Now that we are over six billion hungry and greedy individuals, all aspiring to a first-world lifestyle, our urban way of life encroaches upon the domain of the living Earth.

  James Lovelock

  Christian, Years, Humanity

  James Lovelock (2007). “The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back and How We Can Still Save Humanity”, p.21, Penguin UK

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• We need a more authoritative world...What's the alternative to democracy? There isn't one. But 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 war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.

  James Lovelock

  War, Issues, Feelings

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• The tropical rain forests are a telling example. Once cut down, they rarely recover. Rainfall drops, deserts spread, the climate warms.

  James Lovelock

  Rain, Cutting, Forests

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• One pound of uranium is worth about 3 million pounds worth of coal or oil.

  James Lovelock

  Oil, Coal, Pounds

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• Our planet consists largely of lumps of fall-out from a star-sized hydrogen bomb. Within our bodies, no less than three million atoms rendered unstable in that event still erupt every minute, releasing a tiny fraction of the energy stored from that fierce fire of long ago.

  James Lovelock

  Stars, Fall, Long Ago

  "Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth". Book by James Lovelock, 1979.

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• The big threat to the planet is people: there are too many, doing too well economically and burning too much oil.

  James Lovelock

  Eugenics, Oil, People

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• The inertia of humans is so huge that you can't really do anything meaningful.

  James Lovelock

  Meaningful, Inertia, Humans

  Interview with The Guardian, March 29, 2010.

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• I don't think we're yet evolved to the point where we're clever enough to handle a complex a situation as climate change. The inertia of humans is so huge that you can't really do anything meaningful.

  James Lovelock

  Meaningful, Clever, Thinking

  "James Lovelock on the value of sceptics and why Copenhagen was doomed". Interview with Leo Hickman, www.theguardian.com. March 29, 2010.

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• I know that to personalize the Earth System as Gaia, as I have often done and continue to do in this book, irritates the scientifically correct, but I am unrepentant because metaphors are more than ever needed for a widespread comprehension of the true nature of the Earth and an understanding of the lethal dangers that lie ahead.

  James Lovelock

  Lying, Book, Understanding

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• The apologists for space science always seem over-impressed by engineering trivia and make far too much of non-stick frying pans and perfect ball-bearings. To my mind, the outstanding spin-off from space research is not new technology. The real bonus has been that for the first time in human history we have had a chance to look at the Earth from space, and the information gained from seeing from the outside our azure-green planet in all its global beauty has given rise to a whole new set of questions and answers.

  James Lovelock

  Real, Technology, Space

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• Science always uses metaphor.

  James Lovelock

  Use, Metaphor

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• I'm a scientist, not a theologian. I don't know if there is a God or not. Religion requires certainty.

  James Lovelock

  If There Is A God, Scientist, Certainty

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• By 2040, the Sahara will be moving into Europe and Berlin will be as hot as Baghdad. Atlanta will end up a kudzu jungle. Phoenix will become uninhabitable, as will parts of Beijing (desert), Miami (rising seas) and London (floods). Food shortages will drive millions of people north, raising political tensions.

  James Lovelock

  Moving, Atlanta, Europe

  "James Lovelock, the Prophet" by Jeff Goodell, www.rollingstone.com. November 1, 2007.

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• Only nuclear power can now halt global warming.

  James Lovelock

  Nuclear, Global Warming, Halt

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• All the modelling we do shows that the climate is poised on the jump up to a new hot state. It is accelerating so fast that you could say that we are already in it.

  James Lovelock

  Climate, Hot, States

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• The Earth's population will be culled from today's 6.6 billion to as few as 500 million, with most of the survivors living in the far latitudes - Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Arctic Basin.

  James Lovelock

  Iceland, Environmental, Population

  "James Lovelock, the Prophet" by Jeff Goodell, www.rollingstone.com. November 1, 2007.

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• 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.

  James Lovelock

  War, Issues, Feelings

  Interview with The Guardian, March 29, 2010.

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• I suspect any worries about genetic engineering may be unnecessary. Genetic mutations have always happened naturally, anyway.

  James Lovelock

  Engineering, Worry, Mutation

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• We are the intelligent elite among animal life on earth and whatever our mistakes, [Earth] needs us. This may seem an odd statement after all that I have said about the way 20th century humans became almost a planetary disease organism. But it has taken [Earth] 2.5 billion years to evolve an animal that can think and communicate its thoughts. If we become extinct she has little chance of evolving another.

  James Lovelock

  Mistake, Taken, Animal

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• If a power station were to be built down the road, I'd prefer a nuclear plant over an oil burner, and definitely over a coal burner. We simply have to lessen our consumption of fossil fuels.

  James Lovelock

  Oil, Fuel, Fossils

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• We rushed into renewable energy without any thought. The schemes are largely hopelessly inefficient and unpleasant. I personally can't stand windmills at any price.

  James Lovelock

  Wind Turbines, Energy, Windmills

  "James Lovelock on shale gas and the problem with 'greens'". Interview with Leo Hickman, www.theguardian.com. June 15, 2012.

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• The oil companies regard nuclear power as their rival, who will reduce their profits, so they put out a lot of disinformation about nuclear power.

  James Lovelock

  Oil, Nuclear, Rivals

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• There is no clear distinction anywhere on the Earth's surface between living and nonliving matter. There is merely a hierarchy of intensity going from the 'material' environment of the rocks and the atmosphere to the living cells.

  James Lovelock

  Life, Rocks, Cells

  James Lovelock (2000). “The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth”, p.39, Oxford University Press, USA

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• I have heard that the Saudi Arabians are paying Greenpeace to campaign against Nuclear Power. It wouldn't surprise me at all.

  James Lovelock

  Nuclear, Campaigns, Surprise

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• You never know with politicians what they are really saying. And I don't say that in a negative way-they have an appalling job.

  James Lovelock

  Jobs, Negative, Way

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