As Lovelock writes, 'The fundamental flaw of the green lobbies is revealed in the name Greenpeace; by conflating the humanism of peace movements with environmentalism they unconsciously anthropomorphize Gaia.' But Gaia has no concern for humans, and will not be propitiated by empty gestures such as carbon trading or limits on air traffic. What is needed, in fact, is virtually the opposite of the mix of wind turbines and organic farms, which could at best enable an overblown human population to eke a precarious living from an overtaxed Earth. If there is a sustainable future in Lovelock's view it is in a compact, high-tech civilisation with far fewer people.
Lovelock is a scientist. His criticisms of Green policies are based on rigorous scientific reasoning, and The Vanishing Face of Gaia is invaluable not only in applying Gaia theory to the current environmental crisis but also in tracing the evolution of the theory itself. Lovelock is generous to a fault in his response to defenders of neo-Darwinian orthodoxy such as Richard Dawkins, who attacked the theory because of its seeming reintroduction of purpose into biology - an objection Lovelock was able to rebut when he developed a model of a self-regulating planetary system, Daisyworld, that functions in neo-Darwinian terms. Gaia theory may yet suggest that the currently dominant version of Darwinism needs to be revised, but the theory can be formulated in terms that are consistent with the highly reductive accounts of evolution favoured by most biologists.
Lovelock mounts a challenge to the prevailing world-view as fundamental and far-reaching as any of the scientific revolutions of the past.
From the human perspective Lovelocks message regarding global change is really bleak. But James Lovelock has opened up a significant and critically important debate and it may still be supremely life-affirming, but maybe not human life. The Earth has survived worse disruptions than the one recently triggered by humans. It will go on and renew itself whatever humans do.
Read it.
James Lovelock (2009) The vanishing face of Gaia. Allan Lane / Penguin Press
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