‘Gaia’ scientist James Lovelock: I was ‘alarmist’ about climate change

A rather unexpected story to appear in the mainstream press. From NBC news.

James Lovelock, the maverick scientist who became a guru to the environmental movement with his “Gaia” theory of the Earth as a single organism, has admitted to being “alarmist” about climate change and says other environmental commentators, such as Al Gore, were too.

Lovelock, 92, is writing a new book in which he will say climate change is still happening, but not as quickly as he once feared.

He previously painted some of the direst visions of the effects of climate change. In 2006, in an article in the U.K.’s Independent newspaper, he wrote that “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.”

This is one of the bigger defections or walk-backs of pop scientists to date.

“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened,” Lovelock said.

“The climate is doing its usual tricks. There’s nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now,” he said.

“The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time… it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising — carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that,” he added.

The article makes no attempt to discredit or attack Lovelock. Which is quite remarkable for a mainstream news article these days.

In 2007, Time magazine named Lovelock as one of 13 leaders and visionaries in an article on “Heroes of the Environment,” which also included Gore, Mikhail Gorbachev and Robert Redford.

“Jim Lovelock has no university, no research institute, no students. His almost unparalleled influence in environmental science is based instead on a particular way of seeing things,” Oliver Morton, of the journal Nature wrote in Time. “Humble, stubborn, charming, visionary, proud and generous, his ideas about Gaia have started a change in the conception of biology that may serve as a vital complement to the revolution that brought us the structures of DNA and proteins and the genetic code.”

All in all a rather balanced article. Perhaps part of the beginning of the Great Walk Back.

In the interview, Lovelock said he would not take back a word of his seminal work “Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth,” published in 1979.

But of “Revenge of Gaia,” published in 2006, he said he had gone too far in describing what the warming Earth would see over the next century.

“I would be a little more cautious — but then that would have spoilt the book,” he quipped.

Read the full article here.

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billtoo
October 29, 2021 10:12 am

before this century ends almost all of us will be dead

Fraizer
Reply to  billtoo
October 29, 2021 10:19 am

Yeah, but what kind of world are we going to leave to Keith Richards?

HotScot
Reply to  Fraizer
October 29, 2021 10:30 am

The same as we have now, largely.

Gerald Hanner
Reply to  HotScot
October 29, 2021 1:06 pm

Depends on who is in charge. Will it be a Chinese leader?

HotScot
Reply to  Gerald Hanner
October 29, 2021 1:39 pm

Two chances. None and eff all.

Democracy gets pushed round a lot because we believe in harmonious coexistence, until our backs are against the wall.

TeaPartyGeezer
Reply to  HotScot
October 29, 2021 2:33 pm

Anybody else notice that this “rather unexpected story to appear in the mainstream press” is dated .. April 2012 ???

Rather annoying.

Greg
Reply to  TeaPartyGeezer
October 29, 2021 2:51 pm

Yes, I was trying to make sense of the “12 years is a reasonable amount of time”.

Richard M
Reply to  TeaPartyGeezer
October 29, 2021 7:57 pm

I actually remembered the story from years ago. I knew something was amiss.

Gary S
Reply to  Richard M
October 29, 2021 10:13 pm

But he is still correct – ‘There’s nothing much really happening yet.’

MarkW
Reply to  HotScot
October 30, 2021 12:43 pm

French democracy didn’t keep the Germans out.

Vuk
Reply to  Fraizer
October 29, 2021 11:37 am

Richard Branson: James, I would like to start a world wide environment friendly airline, have I your permission to call it ‘Gaia airlines’?
James Lovelock: No Richard, you don’t, it would be like me starting ‘entertainment’ business and calling it ‘Virgin brothels’.

alastair gray
Reply to  Vuk
October 29, 2021 11:55 am

Isnt that paradise to a certain religion>

Greg
Reply to  alastair gray
October 29, 2021 2:52 pm

Yes but the membership entry conditions are rather limiting.

Richard Page
Reply to  Greg
October 29, 2021 3:59 pm

Presumably those same entry requirements prevent repeat business?

Kenji
Reply to  Fraizer
October 29, 2021 12:33 pm

One where he can NEVER play ‘Brown Sugar’ ever again.

Andrew Wilkins
Reply to  Fraizer
October 29, 2021 5:27 pm

Coffee and spittle all over my phone screen.
Supreme humour.

GRANT
Reply to  Fraizer
October 29, 2021 6:02 pm

Best comment nomination 2021

Nashville
Reply to  Fraizer
October 29, 2021 8:54 pm

The Rolling Stones are fun!

CAD5EF31-90B1-45DF-ACBA-9FD608955B8A.jpeg
Shanghai Dan
Reply to  Fraizer
October 30, 2021 10:23 pm

He survived the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs, I think he can deal with a few degrees of heating…

Joe Crawford
Reply to  billtoo
October 29, 2021 10:51 am

Count me in… :<)

AntonyIndia
Reply to  Joe Crawford
October 29, 2021 7:58 pm

Lovelock changed his tune a few months again recently: see his interview at “Hardtalk” – BBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCSPY5QlvxI

Jim G.
Reply to  AntonyIndia
October 30, 2021 11:09 am

Just watched part of the video.
He’s definitely walked back those statements in this article.

TEWS_Pilot
Reply to  billtoo
October 29, 2021 11:37 am

Not me, they PROMISED that by the 157th “Booster,” we will all be immortal….just needed the routing number and account number to put me on the “list” of those receiving that benefit.

R Grubb
Reply to  billtoo
October 29, 2021 4:25 pm

Yep. Me, well before. Of the 7.3 billion or so alive today, the vast majority will have died by 2100. Of course we will be constantly replaced by more babies, who will begat more babies in that time period.

Kinda like what the Keebler Elves said in the old cookie commercial: “It’s OK, we’ll make more”.

MAL
Reply to  billtoo
October 29, 2021 7:17 pm

I don’t expect to see the 2040s and I fear the world my grand children will be living if we continue on the unscientific and fascist path we are on. COVID has put the world in control of the true totalitarians now everything is either the greater good of if you don’t agree you need to be silence.

Gregory Woods
October 29, 2021 10:21 am

If the Alarmists are sucessful in their efforts to return civilization to the Stone Age, his predictions may yet come true….

Joel O'Bryan
Reply to  Gregory Woods
October 29, 2021 10:29 am

It’s “Stone Age for thee and not for me” from the billionaire class promoting the climate scam.

Abolition Man
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
October 29, 2021 11:33 am

Joel,
Do you really think the world elites can hold the beach ball under the water much longer?
If the Third World ever wakes up to how they have been used and abused by GangGreen they may demand a bit of a reckoning!
Personally, I think that the ruling elites should have to return all the money they’ve grifted! If politicians in the US had to pay for all their boondoggles from their own finances, we’d have a balanced budget in no time, and the economy could soar like an eagle with no wind gods nearby!

Retired_Engineer_Jim
Reply to  Abolition Man
October 29, 2021 11:47 am

Of course they can – they’ve been successful so far.

And how would the Third World ever find out – through the crusading media?

HotScot
Reply to  Gregory Woods
October 29, 2021 10:33 am

It’s all coming to an undignified grinding halt. It’ll take a while before the thrashing and gnashing of teeth is concluded, but it is coming.

aussiecol
Reply to  HotScot
October 29, 2021 2:01 pm

I fear the fear will continue until the fearsome become fearless…

Smart Rock
Reply to  HotScot
October 29, 2021 2:10 pm

Wish I could share your optimism.

Gary Pearse
Reply to  HotScot
October 29, 2021 7:00 pm

HotSkot, is it true what I’m hearing about food shelves being empty in UK and EU because of the Climate Change Moron Govs? High fuel costs (gov and activists screwing up oil and gas markets, divestment, bad press, etc.) affecting transport, food processing and international shipping having millions of empty containers piled in the the wrong places -especially In Europe because traffic was nearly all “to” and little “from” during Pandemic.

Mardler
Reply to  Gary Pearse
October 30, 2021 7:30 am

Yes, it’s true.

SxyxS
Reply to  Gregory Woods
October 29, 2021 10:49 am

Yes,but people will not die because of climate
but because of climate science and the resolutions theyd been pushing.

Since the club of rome was created climate science was a willing prostitute and propaganda outlet for globalists.
Thats why the ice age scare started then and that’s why Lovelocks change of heart is fake and irrelevant as he knew very well about the cooling scare which was the same fake shit as the warming scare is now.
The only thing they have is that co2 levels are rising,
but i don’t need a scientist to tell me that.

Disputin
Reply to  SxyxS
October 29, 2021 11:21 am

“i don’t need a scientist to tell me that.”

I’ll bet you did. Unless you have a way of measuring the very small quantity?

SxyxS
Reply to  Disputin
October 29, 2021 12:23 pm

I bet i don’t,for the same reason i don’t need them to measure radioactivity if i have a Geiger Counter and i do not need scientists to measure temperatures,same with co2 Einstein

I need an engineer to create the stuff ,but do not confuse an engineer (creator) with a theoretical obsever.
Any piece of shit can claim to be a scientist even total failures like Paul Ehrlich (AGW is full of such bastards )while an engineers job is accurately defined and he has to deliver or he is out.

yirgach
Reply to  SxyxS
October 29, 2021 5:50 pm

Bravo.

Peta of Newark
October 29, 2021 10:23 am

Quote:”I was ‘alarmist’ about climate change
IOW: He went into Panic Mode. Sums up Climate Science nicely
What causes people to ‘panic’ easily?

Quote:”will say climate change is still happening, but not as quickly as he once feared”

Which makes it ever more insidious and dangerous – especially if those affected are in Panic Mode about a symptom and not the actual root cause

Deserts don’t just appear overnight and the best & most accurate descriptor for A Desert= A place with low to zero organic material within its soil

Joel O'Bryan
Reply to  Peta of Newark
October 29, 2021 10:31 am

It got him the fame he sought at the time. Yelling fire gets you noticed. Now that the fire isn’t coming, serious credibility problems will start as the Earth enters a cooling period.
The current rush to a Great Reset and the march to socialism has taken on a panic mode push from the Marxists who know it will slip away from them if they don’t seize total power soon.

Zig Zag Wanderer
Reply to  Peta of Newark
October 29, 2021 12:38 pm

the best & most accurate descriptor for A Desert= A place with low to zero organic material within its soil

Not really. A desert us best described as a place with very little available water. That’s actually its definition.

Many deserts have a great deal of organic material, and living things, just waiting for some rain. When it does rain, the whole place can come alive like magic. It is wonderful to see.

It also demonstrates that all this ‘great extinction event’ bollox is just that. Life finds a way, even in the most severe and extreme conditions.

Rory Forbes
Reply to  Zig Zag Wanderer
October 29, 2021 9:00 pm

Exactly so. Last I heard a desert was defined by annual rainfall (less than 25 cm.) The Antarctic is the planet’s largest desert. The organic content of the soil doesn’t even enter into it.

Tedz
October 29, 2021 10:27 am

We thought we knew 20 years ago

The same will be said in another 20 years. This site exists not because every reader is a climate sceptic or conspiracy theorist. It exists because in the main its readership believes we don’t yet understand climate enough to make solid predictions about its behaviour and until we do know we shouldn’t make any.

Chaswarnertoo
Reply to  Tedz
October 29, 2021 3:52 pm

As I told James over 20 years ago.

HotScot
October 29, 2021 10:29 am

Cancellation coming in 5….4….3….

Rud Istvan
October 29, 2021 10:31 am

This is a tell, similar to Stephen Koonin’s Unsettled. Like Koonin, Lovelock does not benefit from climatariat academic grants. Like Koonin, he loses his good reputation if he ‘beliefs’ rather than rejects the nonsense.The climate story started to fall apart with Climategate. It has since fallen much further under the weight of so many failed ‘catastrophe’ predictions. By now, 30 years of failure gets noticed by all except the ‘religious’ (AOC, Kerry) and the paid (Mann, Trenberth). Pile on a big lethal UK winter renewable failure caused blackout and all but BoJo will realize the folly.

HotScot
Reply to  Rud Istvan
October 29, 2021 10:50 am

BoJo is already smelling defeat, he’s used to it by now on his madcap grand gestures. Is there a politician alive that has made so many lunges at a legacy, only to fail as miserably as he has on each one?

Disputin
Reply to  HotScot
October 29, 2021 11:25 am

His gonads keep him going.

alastair gray
Reply to  Disputin
October 29, 2021 12:01 pm

is gonads slang for nut-nuts

Notanacademic
Reply to  alastair gray
October 29, 2021 3:47 pm

No I think its nut-nuts who looks after his gonads 😉

Alastair gray
Reply to  Notanacademic
October 30, 2021 12:18 am

A load of bollocks anyway. He is full of it

Abolition Man
Reply to  Rud Istvan
October 29, 2021 11:50 am

Rud,
Sadly, the truly committed Climastrologists will never admit their religion contains falsehoods! What we will most likely see is the engulfing of the alarmists within the Dark Covidian cult!
Like an amoeba engulfing a bacterium, the Dark Covidians can absorb GangGreen without even mussing their hair! Since they both have much the same goals; complete subjugation of the masses through a worldwide socialist state; the Greentards will only have to learn the new mantra, and employ new signs and bumper stickers to get comfortably settled in!

alastair gray
Reply to  Rud Istvan
October 29, 2021 12:00 pm

Look out for the BBC Ministry of truth hatchet job on climategate on radio next week. “The Hack that changed the world” and not even hell freezing over will convince the Bullingdon Buffoon of anything other than the imperative of getting into Nut-Nu’s —-favours

Ed Zuiderwijk
October 29, 2021 10:34 am

“The climate is doing its usual tricks. There’s nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now,” he said.

That is because that prediction was based on fundamentally flawed ‘models’, which grossly overestimate the magic climate-changing capability of CO2.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Ed Zuiderwijk
October 29, 2021 6:14 pm

And the UN IPCC is still using flawed models today. Nothing has changed other than the the hyperbole is even more scary.

They have to scare us into submission. Or, at least, that’s what they think.

n.n
October 29, 2021 10:47 am

So, Gaia’s choice. That said, CO2 is the god molecule with an anthropomorphic identity.

whiten
Reply to  n.n
October 29, 2021 12:21 pm

Gaia, never can be a choice.

It simply is, or could be. as for, Gaia’s rules!

No much, or any choice there with Gaia… there!

cheers

Robert of Texas
October 29, 2021 11:05 am

Well, at least he started realizing how stupid the predictions were before he dies – that is better than most climate alarmists are going to do. Too bad he already added harm to the world in writing an alarmist book that people took seriously.

Oldseadog
Reply to  Robert of Texas
October 29, 2021 12:16 pm

At least he has the b**ls to admit he was wrong. I wonder if Mann is man enough?

Julian Flood
Reply to  Oldseadog
October 29, 2021 12:39 pm

Dream on.

JF

DiggerUK
October 29, 2021 11:09 am

He is most probably going to be referred to as one of the 0.1% of scientists who don’t agree the planet is doomed.

Imagine the hell that Darwin, Galileo and Copernicus went through. At least Socrates got a drink at the end.

Thankfully the truth will always out, sadly there is a price to pay…_

EDIT.
For UK voters, a Parliamentary Petition to demand a referendum on the 2050 net zero target……Please distribute far and wide…_
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/599602

TEWS_Pilot
Reply to  DiggerUK
October 29, 2021 11:43 am

I have posted it on a forum where I know there is at least one UK citizen, and he is active in politics.

Eric Harpham
Reply to  DiggerUK
October 29, 2021 11:59 am

Thank you. Done + MP informed of my vote for this.

TEWS_Pilot
Reply to  Eric Harpham
October 29, 2021 12:47 pm

I also posted it at CFACT where there is another active UK citizen.

Oldseadog
Reply to  DiggerUK
October 29, 2021 12:20 pm

Done.

Notanacademic
Reply to  DiggerUK
October 29, 2021 3:53 pm

Done.

atticman
Reply to  DiggerUK
October 30, 2021 1:52 am

The problem with a referendum on net zero is that the majority of those voting, who have been lied to and kept in fear and ignorance by both government and the media, will vote to keep them, thus giving this ridiculous target a spurious legitimacy and re-inforcing the government’s hand. David Cameron thought he could settle the Brexit issue and crush the Remain camp with a referendum – and look where that got him!

We should be careful what we wish for.

Redge
Reply to  atticman
October 30, 2021 5:00 am

I don’t think a referendum has a cat in hells chance. Parliament will just push it through as “the will of the people”.

By signing you are telling parliament “not in my name”

Redge
Reply to  DiggerUK
October 30, 2021 4:58 am

signed

TonyL
October 29, 2021 11:11 am

“his ideas about Gaia have started a change in the conception of biology that may serve as a vital complement to the revolution that brought us the structures of DNA”

Good Lord, worship much?
Lovelock’s ideas were a big hit because they were simplistic and hopelessly romantic. They were a mix of the ever popular “return to a simpler time” theme mixed up with New Age and Aquarius nonsense which has been simmering on the back burner on the university campus since the 1960s. This cute little ideology appealed to a particular type of individual.

A person who:
1) has a childlike capacity for rational and critical thought.
2) is borderline illiterate
3) is utterly innumerate
4) is profoundly scientifically illiterate

In other words, your average and typical university student. {Not to be confused with those few science and engineering majors on campus.}
Interesting, the science and eng. majors found the whole “Gaia” thing amusing and laughable.

Mike Lowe
Reply to  TonyL
October 29, 2021 11:21 am

An excellent description of Saint Greta’s parents, and the poor child they created physically and mentally.

Joel O'Bryan
Reply to  TonyL
October 29, 2021 11:34 am

The Avatar sequel movie is coming out soon. Gotta ramp up those Gaia beliefs.

alastair gray
Reply to  TonyL
October 29, 2021 12:13 pm

I disagree . A good metaphor for respect for our environment for the guidance of the wise and blind ritual adherence of the woke and wooly idiots who drive the net zero hell-bound train. These people are poor citizens of gaia for the most part with a biufg dose of hypocrisy.
I just thought of two new words
Hypocracy – Rule by hypocrites
Hypocrazy – The theme for Glasgow CoP26

Abolition Man
Reply to  alastair gray
October 29, 2021 12:28 pm

alastair,
Isn’t that last one the word for the members of the Branch Covidian cult?
You know, the ones that insist that you get an experimental treatment that doesn’t work, for a virus that almost everyone survives, unless they are unhealthy or elderly!

Mike Dubrasich
Reply to  TonyL
October 29, 2021 9:19 pm

Yes indeed. Lovelock’s fairy tale was (is) totally Gaia.

You forgot to list people who rejected traditional religions (along with the many other abstract structures underpinning society) but became lost without them. So they invented brand new religions whole cloth like Smiley Planet that knows if you’ve been naughty or nice. And if you’re naughty it becomes Frowny Planet and wipes itself clean of all life.

The amazing thing is how many regular people, not just acid heads, bought into such crapastic poppycock. Ridiculous superstitions beat rationality, I guess. The latest polls say 40% believe in Bigfoot. There are no limits on stupid.

And now in his dotage, the fairy teller is hedging his bets? The Hotpocalypse was supposed to happen by now. All the top mythologists agreed. But Gaia didn’t cooperate. She’s a tricky trickster. Maybe the faithful hippie NewAgers didn’t meditate hard enough. More yoga, yurts, and yogurt are needed. Don’t let James down. Om.

TEWS_Pilot
October 29, 2021 11:13 am

A true “Rip Van Winkle” awakening. How sad that he wasted perhaps all of the adult years of his life being on the wrong side of science and history and making negative contributions. Better late than never I suppose. Let’s hope he influences millions of others to walk back from the abyss.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  TEWS_Pilot
October 29, 2021 6:19 pm

At least I think we can assume he wasn’t lying when he talked about the climate, he was just misinformed by people who were selling climate change assumptions as facts.

ResourceGuy
October 29, 2021 11:17 am

Rasputin also had no university or students or research. The methods were similar and convincing for the victims.

John Bell
October 29, 2021 11:18 am

He is 102? born 1919.

Scissor
Reply to  John Bell
October 29, 2021 12:01 pm

Yes, he had a couple of 100 year old birthday celebrations in 2019.

ResourceGuy
October 29, 2021 11:24 am

So it comes down to charisma and sufficient forecast length to be famous and a village idiot at the same time. I’ll add that to the list of requirements for a safe, no consequences forecaster. I’m in that biz but unfortunately my prediction does matter.

ResourceGuy
October 29, 2021 11:28 am

The world is always chaotic because it’s busy making new, bad predictions while dealing with the consequences of the previous bad predictions.

gringojay
Reply to  ResourceGuy
October 29, 2021 11:52 am

Dictum used to be “Truth & Consequences”, but only consequences seem to be found.

B1B61509-50BF-4187-BE22-5F7E8DE28052.jpeg
Eric James Stone
October 29, 2021 11:42 am

The NBC article is from 2012, not 2021.

[oops, I blame someone else~charles]

Scissor
Reply to  Eric James Stone
October 29, 2021 3:28 pm

Gaia’s cousin, Dyslexia, is always messing things up.

Duane
October 29, 2021 11:47 am

Pretty silly predicting most of our species wiped out, with only a few survivors living in the polar regions. Earth has never been that hot, at least since it acquired an atmosphere, anyway. Indeed, it has been the warm eras in our geohistory in which life developed, diversified, and flourished the most and the fastest. It is the cold eras that wipe out species, reducing diversity, either because of outright icepacks -such as the 2 km thick caps that covered most of the world’s land mass 16 KA, or caused the climate to be so cold and dry that even beyond the icecaps, life was miserable, short, and brutal.

It is no coincidence that humanity flourished, developed agriculture, for the first time enabling man’s creative abilities to function and not be wasted hunting and gathering only during the present interglacial warm era … and thus created civilization that endure to present time.

Doonman
October 29, 2021 11:49 am

Finally! A scientist who says “It’s better than we thought”.

Retired_Engineer_Jim
October 29, 2021 11:52 am

I expect that his publisher will be in for a lot of criticism from the faithful.

alastair gray
October 29, 2021 11:53 am

I always liked Lovelock and the Gaia hypothesis. Complex feedback mechanisms maintaining a homeostasis . Le Chatellier principle writ large and no relation whatsoever of Gavin Scmidt et all with procrustean positive feedbacks all over the place. conjured up to bludgeon the world to fit the models and vice versa.
On the philosophical side, why not view the Earth as an organism to be cherished -or pay the price. Treat it with respect anmd don’t crap in the water supply in essence. What is not to like about that.
Lovelock is a real scientist and already several years ago he stepped back from and apologised for, his overly alarmist stance. Would that some of the AGW brigade could show the same stature – But they won’t. And many of them are mediocre scientists anyway including a distinguished professor in the state Pen

Gordon A. Dressler
Reply to  alastair gray
October 29, 2021 1:11 pm

“On the philosophical side, why not view the Earth as an organism to be cherished -or pay the price.”

Well, simply because that is not true nor scientific: Earth is not an “organism” as such is defined. However, if you believe in spirits (Gaia) and cherishing nature without utilizing it for human benefit, be my guest.

Many believed that way before the Age of Enlightenment.

Zig Zag Wanderer
Reply to  Gordon A. Dressler
October 29, 2021 5:15 pm

Earth is not an “organism” as such is defined.

At least one definition by Miriam Webster potentially disagrees:

a complex structure of interdependent and subordinate elements whose relations and properties are largely determined by their function in the whole

Now, the only point of dispute is the “function in the whole” part. Some may claim that individual things on Earth do not function “in the whole”.

My long-held view is that no living thing on Earth can really understand “the whole” any more than a skin cell of mine can understand my tax returns. We are effectively akin to skin cells on the Earth.

Perhaps the Earth is doing its equivalent of a tax return, and we’ll never be able to understand even that concept. It’s extreme hubris to believe that we understand the universe just because we’ve banged a few rocks together.

Gordon A. Dressler
Reply to  Zig Zag Wanderer
October 29, 2021 6:31 pm

An electronic hand calculator easily meets the definition of “a complex structure of interdependent and subordinate elements whose relations and properties are largely determined by their function in the whole.” I don’t know of anyone that realistically considers a hand calculator to be an organism.

No further comment is necessary.

Zig Zag Wanderer
Reply to  Gordon A. Dressler
October 30, 2021 1:08 am

Take it up with Miriam Webster

jerry
Reply to  Zig Zag Wanderer
October 30, 2021 2:27 am

Who is Miriam Webster. Do I know her?

whiten
October 29, 2021 11:53 am

Simple question.

To you, which, or who ever you are, or you be, or could be…

Who do you think happens to be the most powerful personality, or persona, in character or otherwise there, in record there, or history of humanity as happened, or contemplated, as contemplated to have happened… over the ages?

Give it a go.

Please do.

cheers

Scissor
Reply to  whiten
October 29, 2021 12:03 pm

Jesus, what a question.

alastair gray
Reply to  Scissor
October 29, 2021 12:15 pm

Ghengis Khan -or could if he wanted too. Or as Joe Biden says in a mongoloid way Yes we Khan!

TEWS_Pilot
Reply to  alastair gray
October 29, 2021 1:17 pm

comment image

mikee
Reply to  TEWS_Pilot
October 30, 2021 1:09 am

Lurch in drag!

whiten
Reply to  Scissor
October 29, 2021 12:25 pm

Exactly… silly you!
😳🧐.

cheers

whiten
Reply to  whiten
October 29, 2021 12:33 pm

😑

whiten
Reply to  whiten
October 29, 2021 12:37 pm

🙂

Abolition Man
Reply to  Scissor
October 29, 2021 12:36 pm

I see what you did there! And I like it!

whiten
Reply to  Abolition Man
October 29, 2021 1:06 pm

Me too,

but still there happens to be, ie is to be a price on the icecream, cone or not!

whiten
Reply to  Scissor
October 29, 2021 11:47 pm

Son of Gaia.

The Mother the Son and the Greenspirit. (the scientista)

😛

October 29, 2021 12:11 pm
Thomas Gasloli
October 29, 2021 12:18 pm

20 years ago the Antarctic ice core data was published which demonstrated that temperature change preceded CO2 change. So, no, he knew 20 years ago that he was lying about climate change and a “lukewarm” position today is just CYA.

Abolition Man
October 29, 2021 12:19 pm

Well, I suppose I should say better late than never, but I can’t help thinking about the number of lives that have been damaged or destroyed by seemingly intelligent individuals like Lovelock romanticizing and infantilizing the way we look at our planet and the universe around us! He may have interesting beliefs, but if you follow his thinking it makes you more of a disciple than a scientist!
Reading about the number of children and young adults that have been traumatized and scarred by the Legend of Climate Apocalypse, I have to wonder how they will feel when they discover that everything they’ve been told isn’t just a lie, but almost the complete opposite of the truth! Young healthy women are getting sterilized to try and stave off destruction, yet one of their never-to-be-born children might well have been the creator of a better propulsion system, or even nuclear fusion!
Any steps now to prevent the herd from stampeding off the cliff seems to be too little, too late!

Zig Zag Wanderer
Reply to  Abolition Man
October 29, 2021 5:20 pm

That’s ok, Darwin suggests that the species is better off without such failures.

F. Ross
October 29, 2021 12:27 pm

“Perhaps part of the beginning of the Great Walk Back”

…an outcome devoutly to be wished.

whiten
Reply to  F. Ross
October 29, 2021 12:47 pm

As per, you get what you stand for!

whiten
Reply to  whiten
October 29, 2021 12:49 pm

As for your free will or the wish of freedom of the choice of you … of you… as desired… by you!!!

Pat Frank
October 29, 2021 12:54 pm

[Lovelock’s] almost unparalleled influence in environmental science is based instead on a particular way of seeing things,” Oliver Morton, of the journal Nature wrote …

That “particular way of seeing things” is the way environmental nutcases see things.

Lovelock is a very smart guy. But he is popular with the nutcase set for the same reason that Paul Ehrlich is popular with the nutcase set.

Like Ehrlich’s, Lovelock’s work is a moist, steamy appeal to enviro-nutcase sentiments.

MSNBC’s smarmy article goes on in its second half as a paean to climate disaster with some usual suspects saying that, no matter what, we’re going to fry. Just a bit later than we thought.

I read with cynical amusement Peter Stott’s remark that the present pause, “would need to continue for another 10 years or so before it could be considered evidence that something was missing from climate models.

Where did we hear that before? Oh, yeah. It was used to explain away the previous embarrassing pause that started in 1999.

And “[Lovelock’s] ideas about Gaia have” notstarted a change in the conception of biology that may serve as a vital complement to the revolution that brought us the structures of DNA and proteins and the genetic code.

The ecosphere of Earth is not itself an organism. That pop idea has had no influence on the science of Biology, though it may have been embraced as a personal religion by the pathologically romantic among biologists.

Supposing the Gaia idea is of a stature with DNA, proteins, and the genetic code is beyond fatuous, entering well into hilariously levitated.

Zig Zag Wanderer
Reply to  Pat Frank
October 29, 2021 5:23 pm

Where did we hear that before? Oh, yeah. It was used to explain away the previous embarrassing pause that started in 1999.

Didn’t whatshisface (Jones?) at UEA admit that there had been no statistical warming for 30 years? Didn’t that prove the whole CAGW hypothesis wrong, by their own criteria?

Pat Frank
Reply to  Zig Zag Wanderer
October 29, 2021 5:59 pm

In a sane world yes, ZZW.

Gordon A. Dressler
October 29, 2021 12:58 pm

Lovelock’s last remark given in the above article:

“I would be a little more cautious — but then that would have spoilt the book”

This speaks volumes about the character of the man. With age he seems almost on the edge of stating he was young and foolish in his claims from younger ages, which led very many followers away from truth . . . but then he turns around a makes a quip to the effect that honesty back then was a trivial matter, that it would have “spoilt” his pontifications (and, of course, his fame).

If James Lovelock is now seeking redemption from me, he’s looking in the wrong place.

P.S. Hey, Jim, can you finally get a clue: of course “climate change is still happening” (on Earth) as it has for, oh, the last 4+ billion years or so. And at its natural pace.

High Treason
October 29, 2021 12:59 pm

This story was several years ago. Mainstream media totally ignored it. This is the actual problem-media are OWNED. They are controlled by those with a vested interest in perpetuating the FEAR campaign.
It is one of those fundamental defects of humans-a 2 month continuous fear campaign permanently alters the brain, making it difficult to program out of the false belief. As it is, humans behave irrationally when they are in fear.
The solution-take the Propaganda Vaccine. Refuse to live in fear. To quote Thomas Jefferson-“When injustice becomes law, Resistance becomes Duty.” It is our DUTY to resist the lies from our (controlled) overlords. From insane wearing of masks outside to being forced to be part of a (failing) medical experiment. From boycotting woke businesses and refusing to subscribe to green lunacy. It is our DUTY to resist.

ATheoK
October 29, 2021 1:02 pm

Lovelock, 92, is writing a new book in which he will say climate change is still happening, but not as quickly as he once feared.”

He’s noticed that without various government departments and agencies cooking the books, temperatures are not rising in lockstep with CO₂

  • Lovelock ignores evidence of coordinated fraud, harassment, censure, and vindictive assaults against the careers of legitimate scientists for not abjectly supporting alarmism,
  • Lovelock ignores all the willful fraud, fakery and records destruction by alarmist scientists.
  • Lovelock ignores all the alarmist research that depend upon funny statistics and use of preferred results instead of valid scientific testing.
  • Lovelock ignores all of the alarmist papers that are destroyed when reviewed and are impossible to honestly replicate.
  • Lovelock ignores the Antarctic never melted and that the Arctic stopped having lower minimums.
  • Lovelock ignores that no animals have died and that wildlife and people are unharmed by alarmist conceived climate change.
  • Lovelock ignores the devastation wreaked on wildlife and harm forced upon people by alleged renewable energy generating systems.
  • Lovelock ignores that alleged renewable energy generating systems are dependent upon scientific inventions that do not exist.
  • Lovelock ignores that alleged renewable energy generating systems are priced based upon heavy taxes and surcharges against fossil fuels. Without financial support from fossil fuels and massive tax funding, renewable energy systems are unworkable.
  • Lovelock ignores that alarmist alleged solutions to climate change are factually unable to accomplish anything but waste taxpayer money.
  • Lovelock ignores that for over thirty years, alarmist predictions and projections, including Lovelock’s specious Gaia book, have failed repeatedly.

Basically, Lovelock bought into a fantasy as imaginary as his fictional books. A fact that makes his Gaia revenge book just another fictional work.

Instead of Lovelock apologizing for his earning money scaring the public, he essentially doubles down and moves his goal posts.

May his winter weather be chilly.

whiten
Reply to  ATheoK
October 29, 2021 1:21 pm

God, is not Gaia…

It is as it supposedly to be,
God is not Gaia ..

cheers

whiten
Reply to  whiten
October 30, 2021 12:08 am

…else we end up with G(i)G(i).

John K. Sutherland
Reply to  ATheoK
October 29, 2021 1:30 pm

He subscribed to ‘the Noble Lie’ and now he’s trying to backtrack.

Pat Frank
Reply to  ATheoK
October 30, 2021 12:45 pm

A well-composed bill of indictment, ATheoK.

One that can also be levied against any other of the purveyors of CO2 frenzy. Or against the field in its entirety.

October 29, 2021 1:10 pm

I don’t believe that CO2 causes earth to warm but I do believe that we will run out of carbon-based fuel and that the planets human population is unsustainable.

Zig Zag Wanderer
Reply to  Johannes
October 29, 2021 5:25 pm

You are a human ingenuity denier

Rory Forbes
Reply to  Johannes
October 29, 2021 9:15 pm

Frankly I have little interest in any more unsupported beliefs on this subject. Beliefs are dangerous, especially when they lack any evidence.

MarkW
Reply to  Johannes
October 30, 2021 12:59 pm

We have hundreds and hundreds of years before carbon based fuels run out.
Asking how we will deal with that situation is like asking the people alive in 1021, how those who live in 2021 will adapt to their travails.

Given the fact that the rate of change has accelerated at a tremendous pace over the last 100 year, my analogy is way too tame.

CO2isLife
October 29, 2021 1:14 pm

Challenge to WUWT Readers. There is something called a Stirling Engine that uses a closed system to drive a piston. CO2 is claimed to cause a 1+ degree C increase when CO2 was increased from 300 to 400 ppm. It is claimed to cause 500 degrees C temps on Venus. If thermalizing outgoing LWIR can cause a temperature differential of 1 to 500 degree C, that temperature differential should be able to be harnessed and drive a piston. If CO2 can warm air to the degree they claim, why can’t CO2 power a Stirling Engine? All you need is a LWIR Transparent Cylinder, a LWIR Blocking/Absorbing Shield. Expose the CO2 to LWIR, it expands, Block the LWIR after the AIr has expanded, and it cools. That is a CO2 driven perpetual engine.

Rud Istvan
Reply to  CO2isLife
October 29, 2021 2:30 pm

Know you were kidding. But a fun true story follows.

I know a great deal about Stirling engines. Dean Kamen of Segway fame tried to get Motorola to invest in his version when I head Ventures and New Businesses as part of my head of corporate strategy job. External heat source. But you still have to cool the internal working fluid. Unlike an ICE where about 85% of the internal combustion heat is removed by the exhaust, in a Stirling engine all internal heat has to be removed by the radiator. So even a very small weak one (1 HP) needs a relatively huge radiator. And the problem with Dean’s small 1HP version for India tube well pumps was his key mechanical Sterling trick had been developed and published in NZ, so his patent application was worthless. He really didn’t like that we invested neither in Segway nor the Stirling. His complaints to the CEO and Board went nowhere because I had a good track record and reputation.

Nick B.
Reply to  CO2isLife
October 29, 2021 4:45 pm

I have another idea. Take a look at typical energy balance on Earth from climate guys: https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/energy
It’s only about 50 units of energy coming directly from the sun. Atmosphere with just a little bit of CO2 triple that amount. If you fill solar cell with pure CO2 you could multiply energy production by the factor of 10.
For some reason does not work for solar cell, only for the planet. /sarc

MarkW
Reply to  CO2isLife
October 30, 2021 1:00 pm

Never mind

Bruce Cobb
October 29, 2021 1:22 pm

Greta is not amused.

Joe Gordon
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
October 29, 2021 1:36 pm

Greta is to today’s high school children what Farrah Fawcett was to my generation. This is why the world is in trouble despite this algoremaggedon stuff being a bunch of hooey.

These kids have no interest in sex or reproduction. They’re scared, humorless and glued to their smartphones like Joe Biden to his one remaining functioning brain cell. Even the Victorians were more fun than Greta.

Abolition Man
Reply to  Joe Gordon
October 29, 2021 4:39 pm

Joe,
If Greta is today’s version of Farrah Fawcett, then there is very little chance of the world population rising much further! That kid could knock the excitement out of a Victoria’s Secret modeling show! Blah, blah, blah!

BobM
Reply to  Joe Gordon
October 29, 2021 6:19 pm

Today’s version of Farrah Fawcett is found on a porn website somewhere, easier than finding her 1976 swimsuit poster, sexy back then but tame now. Sorry, nobody, literally nobody gives Greta a second look.

Richard Page
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
October 29, 2021 4:12 pm

Greta is most assuredly not amused because Greta was refused an official invite to the Copfest. Frankly Greta is incandescent with rage, stomping around and claiming the world leaders are afraid of her. Yeah, right.

Zig Zag Wanderer
Reply to  Richard Page
October 29, 2021 5:29 pm

Frankly Greta is incandescent with rage, stomping around and claiming the world leaders are afraid of her.

But it’s true!

I believe that the only reason that I haven’t been invited too is because they are afraid of me.

RickWill
October 29, 2021 1:47 pm

I wonder how many people realise climate models are pure crap based on fictional beliefs.

H.R.
Reply to  RickWill
October 29, 2021 5:08 pm

Whatever that number is, Rick, it’s not enough.

Steve Case
October 29, 2021 1:54 pm

“Perhaps part of the beginning of the Great Walk Back.”
______________________________________________
Don ‘t hold your breath.

Miroslav Pavlíček
October 29, 2021 2:03 pm

Gaia has created humankind to relief some carbon stranded in fossils for life. But the alarmists try to spoil it.

Abolition Man
Reply to  Miroslav Pavlíček
October 29, 2021 4:45 pm

Were humans created to save Life from extinction?
You don’t have to be a Ufologist to answer the question; if an alien species wanted a nice water planet, devoid of life to colonize, what would they do differently from GangGreen!?

Miroslav Pavlíček
Reply to  Abolition Man
October 30, 2021 5:34 am

I have also the feeling like if I lived in a sci-fi, in which ETs instigated our apoptosis to grab our planet. The Green climatic cult shall convert us to a global suicide sect. 

October 29, 2021 2:35 pm

Steve MacIntyre at Climate Audit is continuing to report, bravely and meticulously, a growing culture of fraud in the climate alarmist movement across the media, academia and further.

https://climateaudit.org/

The BBC forged screenshots of Macintyre’s site, subtly distorting information in an attempt to deflect attention away from climate alarmist scientists’ malpractice.

And the PAGES 2019 project is shown in instance after instance to be so egregiously selective of proxies in a transparently biased way, that the whole project becomes a joke with zero credibility.

bonbon
October 29, 2021 2:54 pm

Lovelock is all used up, as Edgar Poe showed, even if he endorsed nuclear,
THE MAN THAT WAS USED UPA Tale of the Late Bugaboo and Kickapoo Campaign
https://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/POE/used_up.html

The sheer science incompetence is easily demonstrated by Vernadsky :
The Biosphere

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4612-1750-3

The length the blob go to greening Vernadsky shows their trepidation.

Meanwhile the Pope wrote (or Sir John Schellnhuber CBE) a paean to Gaia, Laudato Si.
Presumably his confession with Biden just now was not in Latin…

Anyway Lovelock probably cannot understand at 90 the Davos Great Reset and $150 trillion green new deal on Gaia’s alter.

Scissor
Reply to  bonbon
October 29, 2021 7:51 pm

Even more so, he’s 102.

bonbon
Reply to  Scissor
October 30, 2021 4:02 am

Try explaining that to a tweenie, or Greta the ever-15 year old!

Peter
October 29, 2021 3:21 pm

wow, I remember how rabid he was. To hear him say this is a bit of a shock, but it’s nice to see he’s capable of reassessing his outlook based on factual observations.

Abolition Man
Reply to  Peter
October 29, 2021 4:49 pm

Peter,
Many people feel regret for the sins of their youth as they get older! Most of them don’t get into their nineties before realizing them, however!

Steve Taylor
October 29, 2021 5:11 pm

Is that an old article or a mistake ? Lovelock is 102

otsar
October 29, 2021 5:24 pm

The walk back is a long one. Some will not make it.

BrianB
October 29, 2021 5:36 pm

For anyone who didn’t notice, this story is approaching it’s tenth birthday as Lovelock has passed his 102nd. In fact it’s referenced below the story in the “Related” line up from April 2012.

2hotel9
October 29, 2021 6:27 pm

“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing'”It is doing precisely what it has always done, f**king moron.

Barbara Hamrick
October 29, 2021 7:06 pm

It looks like this story is from 2012.

Eric Vieira
October 30, 2021 2:16 am

At least, in comparison with many alarmists out there, he is capable of acknowledging that he made a mistake. That is a positive point that distinguishes him from many others.

c1ue
October 30, 2021 6:45 am

I looked at the majority of comments in this thread at this time, they’re missing several key points:

1) The article is posted on MSM: NBCnews.com
2) UK Met Office head of climate monitoring and attribution, Hadley center, agrees with Lovelock

This is a double whammy of public climate alarmist figures walking back the extremist rhetoric. There is even mention that the models are too warm.

Rod
October 30, 2021 7:42 am

As someone pointed out in comments, this article is dated 2012. Maybe it was a transposed 21? Apparently not, since he’s now 102 years old (weird, that) rather than the 92 cited in the article. The date of the article should be prominently noted in the introduction.

It’s interesting to note how much NBC News has changed, however. They’d never print a story like that today, which should have been a clue, I suppose.

Paul Johnson
October 30, 2021 9:04 am

When hype clashes with reality, reality prevails. Eventually.

Tom D
October 30, 2021 11:26 am

I have it on good authority that Lovelock’s new book will be co-authored by Emily Litella . . .

Trying to Play Nice
October 30, 2021 2:56 pm

“Jim Lovelock has no university, no research institute, no students.”

He also has no sense or ability. The man is a complete idiot.

mikee
October 30, 2021 6:52 pm

“By the time truth has its boots on a lie has gone half-way around the world.” – Winston Churchill.

kramer
October 31, 2021 4:57 pm

If there is ever a climate protest near me, I’m going to go there with a large sign to put in their faces that reads:

“I have seen this happen before, of course. We should have been warned by the CFC/ozone affair because the corruption of science in that was so bad that something like 80% of the measurements being made during that time were either faked, or incompetently done.”

  • James Lovelock, TheGuardian, March, 2010

This was a big opps on his part, LOL

spock
November 2, 2021 2:10 am
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