The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning

James Lovelock has a problem with populist consensus climate science, and the way it's being used politically. He is deeply concerned that we're wasting our efforts on misguided attempts to "save the planet", when the planet's most certainly going take care of itself, in one way or another. What we need to do, is to save ourselves.

Geological history shows that the earth can exist in several relatively stable states with rapid transitions from one to the other. Lovelock does a good job of describing some of the negative feedback loops that stabilize these states. He also describes, in chilling detail, some of the positive feedback loops that can replace them, and cause the sudden transitions.

Lovelock argues convincingly that the conventional wisdom of today is based on oversimplifications rooted in atmospheric physics. His main theme is that things are already wildly out of control - OUR control, that is - and that major climate change is already inevitable. He uses the image of the drink that stays cold in a hot room as long as it's got an ice cube in it. There are several "ice cubes" in our global climate drink. Ice caps that continue, for a while, to reflect sunlight and absorb energy. Oceans that continue, for a while, to mix cold and warm water. Populations of algae, that help keep the world cool as long as temperatures remain under certain thresholds, but not a minute longer. Forests, that regulate their own temperature through controlled evaporation, but will stop doing so when drought spreads.

Lovelock also argues convincingly that many of the steps now proposed to solve the problem, would have the immediate effect of making it much worse. One example is that if we stop burning coal, we'll reduce the amount of atmospheric dust that's currently keeping a lot of the radiation out.

This book won't have the power to save the world as we know it. Acccording to Lovelock, that's far too late, anyway. However, it looks like a very good beginning for independent thinkers who want to understand the future, and how to prepare themselves and their children for it.

I've made up my mind to reread this book, starting next week, and I'll bringe a couple of pens and highlighters to the next sitting. I'll write more about it when I'm done.