James Lovelock says the human race’s only hope is to adapt - fixing global warming will just make it worse

Posted: December 31st, 2008 | Author: karlfrankjr | Filed under: Arts & Entertainment, Culture, Environment, Karl Frank Jr., Nature, Science, books | Tags: Earth, Environment, Gaia, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, George Carlin, Global warming, Hot Flat and Crowded, human race, humanity, humans, James Lovelock, Science, The Daily Galaxy, Thomas Friedman |

I have always felt that James Lovelock was on to something with his Gaia theory of Earth, which as The Daily Galaxy states, “the Earth is essentially a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism.

But, in this case, I hope that he is wrong.  According to his latest thoughts on global warming, it is really too late to do anything about it, and the “affluenza” that Thomas Friedman emphasizes in his book, ‘Hot, Flat, and Crowded‘ has taken over the developing world is starting to affect the planet.

Here is the kicker, not only is it too late to do anything about it, according to Lovelock, doing too much to fix it might actually make it worse.  Essentially, he says we should be more responsible for the sake of it and just learn how to adapt to what is about to happen to us as a race of people.

It also brings to mind a comedy sketch I saw by George Carlin when he said something like:

“The planet has been through a lot worse than us.
Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through
earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar
flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the
poles…hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and
asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires,
erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages…And we think some plastic
bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The
planet…the planet…the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE!” Here is the whole thing, but in typical Carlin fashion, it includes a lot of profanity.

The Status of “Spaceship Earth”

It’s a horrible catch 22 situation that leaves only a very small gap for any joy at all. If we continue to do nothing (note the use of the word continue), then we will doom ourselves. If we do do something, like a massive cut back in the emission of carbon in to our atmosphere, Lovelock believes that we would further damage Earth.

“Any economic downturn or planned cutback in fossil fuel use, which lessened aerosol density, would intensify the heating,” Lovelock will say, in a lecture to the Royal Society today. “If there were a 100 per cent cut in fossil fuel combustion it might get hotter not cooler. We live in a fool’s climate. We are damned if we continue to burn fuel and damned if we stop too suddenly.”

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