Published: 29 October 2007 in The Independent
Climate change is happening faster than anyone predicted, and its consequences could be dire for the survival of civilisation in the 21st century because of the chaos it will cause in terms of famine, drought and mass migration, according to a leading scientist.
James Lovelock, the inventor of the Gaia theory (which likens the Earth to a living organism) will tell the the Royal Society in London this evening that humans have in effect declared war on the planetary survival system, causing it to explode out of control.
Man-made emissions of greenhouses gases have been triggering a positive feedback in the climate, in which temperature increases have generated further temperature rises and the release of vast amounts of carbon dioxide from natural stores on land and in the oceans.
“I see our predicament as like that faced by any nation that is about to be invaded by a powerful enemy: now we are at war with the Earth and, as in a blitzkrieg, events proceed faster than we can respond,” he will say.
“We are in a strange position of Read the rest of this entry »