A prophet of doom dials it down a notch

James Lovelock hates wind turbines, likes nuclear power and generally makes it difficult for anyone who wants to pigeonhole him in the pantheon of environmental heroes. But there's little point in denying that few earth scientists have a better grasp of the big picture when it comes to planetary ecology, so it's always worth asking him for his take on the climate crisis. His most recent pronouncements seem a little less bleak. Relatively speaking.

Here's Lovelock in 2006, on the occasion of the release of his book, The Revenge of Gaia:

We are in a fool's climate, accidentally kept cool by smoke, and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable. (The Independent, 16 Jan. 2006)

And here he is last week in Grist:

"Our main task, should the earth continue to heat, is to adapt and learn how to survive," he said. "We're unlikely to become extinct by global heating, but we may be cut back to one billion people or less."

Well, at least that's much better than a few breeding pairs on the north coast of Greenland.

Lovelock also makes a point of including solar thermal (concentrated solar, or baseload solar) in his short list of technologies we should be deploying aggressively to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. The other member of the list remains nuclear power.