British Scientist Lovelock Says it's Too Late To Reverse Global Warming
AEN News
London - James Lovelock, 81, a Fellow of the Royal Society and
honorary visiting professor at Oxford University, says it is
too late for the world to turn around the damage that's been
done to Earth's climate and warned the leading nations to
prepare for what he called "living hell" as the earth's
climate continues to grow warmer.
Lovelock was responsible for the discovery of the global
distribution of nitrous oxide and of the chlorofluorocarbons,
both of which are important in the stratospheric chemistry
of ozone.
If a lesser scientist made such a prediction they'd be ridiculed.
But Lovelock, now 81, has received a slew of environmental
and scientific awards and honours in the US, Europe and Japan.
Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and
the few breeding pairs of people who survive will be in the
Arctic where the climate will be tolerable, Lovelock maintains.
According to Lovelock, the world has already passed the point
of no return for climate change, and civilisation as we know
it is unlikely to survive.
The theory holds that the planet has a special way of regulating
itself, chemically and atmospherically, of keeping itself fit
for life, as if it were a great superorganism; as if, in fact,
it were alive.
Lovelock, who conceived the idea in the 1970s while examining
the possibility of life on Mars for Nasa, has been warning
of the dangers of climate change since major concerns about
it first began to surface nearly 20 years ago.
Now his concerns have reached a peak and have a new emphasis.
Rather than calling for further ways of countering climate
change, he is calling on governments around the world to
begin large-scale preparations for surviving.
"I think we have little option now but to prepare for the
worst," Lovelock recently told western governments, "and
assume that we have passed the threshold. We will do our
best to survive but sadly I cannot see the US or the
emerging economies of China and India cutting back in
time, and they are the main source of emissions."
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