From the Guardian, where I find it surprising they actually printed it:
Scientist behind the Gaia hypothesis says environment movement does not pay enough attention to facts and he was too certain in the past about rising temperatures
Environmentalism has “become a religion” and does not pay enough attention to facts, according to James Lovelock.
The 94 year-old scientist, famous for his Gaia hypothesis that Earth is a self-regulating, single organism, also said that he had been too certain about the rate of global warming in his past book, that “it’s just as silly to be a [climate] denier as it is to be a believer” and that fracking and nuclear power should power the UK, not renewable sources such as windfarms.
Speaking to the Guardian for an interview ahead of a landmark UN climate science report on Monday on the impacts of climate change, Lovelock said of the warnings of climate catastrophe in his 2006 book, Revenge of Gaia: “I was a little too certain in that book. You just can’t tell what’s going to happen.”
…
Lovelock’s comments appear to be at odds with dire forecasts from a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on Monday, which leaked versions show will warn that even small temperature rises will bring “abrupt and irreversible changes” to natural systems, including Arctic sea ice and coral reefs.
Asked if his remarks would give ammunition to climate change sceptics, he said: “It’s just as silly to be a denier as it is to be a believer. You can’t be certain.”
more here: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/30/james-lovelock-environmentalism-religion
Well he’s senile. Obviously. You get to a certain age. He be like that ‘Patrick Moore’ dude who had nothing to do with (the founding of) Greenpeace once he suggested that they were now just a bunch of watermelons.
Greg says:
March 31, 2014 at 4:02 am
I think his Gaia concept stands up well. It’s certainly a self regulating system that is orgainic in many of its component parts. It does not seem unreasonable to regard it as a kind of macro organism
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I want to see it reproduce.
Wait . . . no, I don’t.
Reproduction is one of the characteristics of life. Gaia doesn’t do it. It’s not an organism.
Anthony, a suggestion.
Arguments from Authority are – strictly speaking – a logical fallacy. But warmists love them (97% etc.) and most ordinary, undecided people pay attention to them.
Why not compile a list of big shot “converts” from the CAGW religion that we can show to confused friends? These “converts” don’t need to have become hardcore skeptics, it is sufficient that they dissociate themselves from alarmism and publicly refuse to be numbered among the alarmist ranks.
From the top of my head, I can list Lovelock here, the co-founder of GreenPeace and the NASA retired guys. I am sure there are a lot of others (I am new to this, sorry).
This could become a “sticky” topic, easily found at home page, and constantly being updated as new guys come out of the closet (this seems to be accelerating).
We need to have ready ammunition to confront their arguments trying to paint skeptics as flat-earthers or other types of ignorant morons.
http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2014/04/01/can-you-guess-what-religion-dennis-prager-says-has-been-the-most-influential-over-the-last-century/