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| JAMES LOVELOCK IS THE 'GODFATHER' OF THE GLOBAL WARMING MOVEMENT BUT.... He has strong words that will confuse those faithful who have not gone completely zombie concerning Polar Bears and the dangers of carbon dioxide |
Two months ago, James Lovelock, the godfather of global warming, gave a startling interview to msnbc.com in which he acknowledged he had been unduly “alarmist” about climate change.
The implications were extraordinary.
Lovelock is a world-renowned scientist and environmentalist whose Gaia theory — that the Earth operates as a single, living organism — has had a profound impact on the development of global warming theory.
Unlike many “environmentalists,” who have degrees in political science, Lovelock, until his recent retirement at age 92, was a much-honoured working scientist and academic.
His inventions have been used by NASA, among many other scientific organizations.
Lovelock’s invention of the electron capture detector in 1957 first enabled scientists to measure CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) and other pollutants in the atmosphere, leading, in many ways, to the birth of the modern environmental movement.
Having observed that global temperatures since the turn of the millennium have not gone up in the way computer-based climate models predicted, Lovelock acknowledged, “the problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago.” Now, Lovelock has given a follow-up interview to the UK’s Guardian newspaper in which he delivers more bombshells sure to anger the global green movement, which for years worshipped his Gaia theory and apocalyptic predictions that billions would die from man-made climate change by the end of this century.
Lovelock still believes anthropogenic global warming is occurring and that mankind must lower its greenhouse gas emissions, but says it’s now clear the doomsday predictions, including his own (and Al Gore’s) were incorrect.
He responds to attacks on his revised views by noting that, unlike many climate scientists who fear a loss of government funding if they admit error, as a freelance scientist, he’s never been afraid to revise his theories in the face of new evidence. Indeed, that’s how science advances.
Among his observations to the Guardian:
(1) A long-time supporter of nuclear power as a way to lower greenhouse gas emissions, which has made him unpopular with environmentalists, Lovelock has now come out in favour of natural gas fracking (which environmentalists also oppose), as a low-polluting alternative to coal.
As Lovelock observes, “Gas is almost a give-away in the U.S. at the moment. They’ve gone for fracking in a big way. This is what makes me very cross with the greens for trying to knock it … Let’s be pragmatic and sensible and get Britain to switch everything to methane. We should be going mad on it.” (Kandeh Yumkella, co-head of a major United Nations program on sustainable energy, made similar arguments last week at a UN environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro, advocating the development of conventional and unconventional natural gas resources as a way to reduce deforestation and save millions of lives in the Third World.)
(2) Lovelock blasted greens for treating global warming like a religion.
“It just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion,” Lovelock observed. “I don’t think people have noticed that, but it’s got all the sort of terms that religions use … The greens use guilt. That just shows how religious greens are. You can’t win people round by saying they are guilty for putting (carbon dioxide) in the air.”
(3) Lovelock mocks the idea modern economies can be powered by wind turbines.
As he puts it, “so-called ‘sustainable development’ … is meaningless drivel … We rushed into renewable energy without any thought. The schemes are largely hopelessly inefficient and unpleasant. I personally can’t stand windmills at any price.”
(4) Finally, about claims “the science is settled” on global warming: “One thing that being a scientist has taught me is that you can never be certain about anything. You never know the truth. You can only approach it and hope to get a bit nearer to it each time. You iterate towards the truth. You don’t know it.”
RETURNING TO EL GRINGO VIEJO'S COMMENTARY:Al Gore will have to resort to something beyond taking pictures of ice sheets falling off the Antarctic Mass during the 6 Summer months of 18 to 23 hours of sunlight. Sometimes the deceivers do not even need the Sun's help in order to mislead.
People, even dull people, have begun to figure out the trickery and the mendaciousness. Any shyster, with to-day's technology, can make Christopher Reeve walk. A good photo processing laboratory, and..zowee! I'm a spinal surgeon! Bring on the embryonic stem cells!
And, yes Virginia, Polar Bears really can swim quite well, and for long distances....and yes Virginia, Polar Bear daddies really do search out their cubs and kill them....just for sport. They are very bad daddies, so Polar Bear mommies do everything possible to avoid them when they have cubs under their care. And yes, there are about 10 times as many Polar Bears now as there were before Al Gore flunked out of Divinity School, and approximately 9 times as many as before he flunked out of Law School. Even his daddy....who was not a particularly good daddy....could not use his political influence to obtain a graduate degree for his dumbo son. Something like the same problem the Lion of the Senate, Teddy (The Chapaquidick Kid) Kennedy had in spite of his daddy's millions. But at least Old Man Kennedy and Old Man Gore did not kill their cubs.
And, of course, if we want to see lots of Caribou, we'll find large numbers, especially in the Winter, hanging around the Alaska Pipeline....and if you want to have a really successful fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico....head for an off-shore drilling rig. Or an old wreck.
Sheeesh! And good morning to everyone, where ever you are.
El Gringo Viejo
