"We can't save the planet"

                                               


James Lovelock, the creator of the Gaia hypothesis, was one of the initial advocates of using Planetary Geoengineering to counteract the effects of Greenhouse Warming.  Lovelock himself proposed converting plant material into biochar and dumping the charcoal in the ocean as a way to pump down CO2.  But as he became older Lovelock abandoned hope that Planetary Geoengineering could successfully counteract human-caused Greenhouse Warming.  In a recent interview at age 90 Lovelock said it is too late for Planetary Geoengineering to stop Greenhouse Warming, and humanity now has no alternative but to accept whatever happens.  

James Lovelock's message to humanity is one of resignation and surrender to whatever is coming with global climate change.  There is no way around the fact, according to Lovelock, that "we can't save the planet!"  

In addition to abandoning his own geoengineering ideas, Lovelock now also dismisses all other geoengineering ideas as impractical and impossible, saying "trying to save the planet is a lot of nonsense."  Lovelock dismisses the efforts of both politicians to craft CO2 reduction treaties, and scientists to find ways to mitigate CO2 emissions and counteract global warming.

Its hard to know if Lovelock was just having a particularly bad day when he abandoned his earlier advocacy for biochar and planetary geoengineering, or if there is some scientific reason why he has changed his opinion.  Lovelock hasn't abandoned all hope, however, as he holds out some hope that the Earth (or Gaia?) might somehow mitigate Global Warming in ways that we presently can't foresee.

However, if Gaia fails to stop global warming, Lovelock recommends that people retain a good attitude about it all.  After all, Lovelock says, while people may've caused global warming by overindulging in fossil fuels, "We're not really guilty.  We didn't deliberately set out to heat the world."