James Lovelock Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• The inertia of humans is so huge that you can't really do anything meaningful.

  James Lovelock

  Meaningful, Inertia, Humans

  Interview with The Guardian, March 29, 2010.

  6 Copy quote

• For each of our actions there are only consequences.

  James Lovelock

  Our Actions, Action, Consequence

  4 Copy quote

• I'm a scientist, not a theologian. I don't know if there is a God or not. Religion requires certainty.

  James Lovelock

  If There Is A God, Scientist, Certainty

  9 Copy quote

• By 2040, the Sahara will be moving into Europe and Berlin will be as hot as Baghdad. Atlanta will end up a kudzu jungle. Phoenix will become uninhabitable, as will parts of Beijing (desert), Miami (rising seas) and London (floods). Food shortages will drive millions of people north, raising political tensions.

  James Lovelock

  Moving, Atlanta, Europe

  "James Lovelock, the Prophet" by Jeff Goodell, www.rollingstone.com. November 1, 2007.

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• By the end of this century, climate change will reduce the human population to a few breeding pairs surviving near the Arctic.

  James Lovelock

  Eugenics, Climate, Population

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• I don't think we're yet evolved to the point where we're clever enough to handle a complex a situation as climate change. The inertia of humans is so huge that you can't really do anything meaningful.

  James Lovelock

  Meaningful, Clever, Thinking

  "James Lovelock on the value of sceptics and why Copenhagen was doomed". Interview with Leo Hickman, www.theguardian.com. March 29, 2010.

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• The apologists for space science always seem over-impressed by engineering trivia and make far too much of non-stick frying pans and perfect ball-bearings. To my mind, the outstanding spin-off from space research is not new technology. The real bonus has been that for the first time in human history we have had a chance to look at the Earth from space, and the information gained from seeing from the outside our azure-green planet in all its global beauty has given rise to a whole new set of questions and answers.

  James Lovelock

  Real, Technology, Space

  17 Copy quote

• Science always uses metaphor.

  James Lovelock

  Use, Metaphor

  9 Copy quote

• The big threat to the planet is people: there are too many, doing too well economically and burning too much oil.

  James Lovelock

  Eugenics, Oil, People

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• Composing computer programs to solve scientific problems is like writing poetry. You must choose every word with care and link it with the other words in perfect syntax. There is no place for verbosity or carelessness. To become fluent in a computer lnaguage demands almost the antithesis of modern loose thinking. It requires many interactive sessions, the hands-on use of the device. You do not learn a foreign language from a book, rather you have to live in the country for year to let the langauge become an automatic part of you, and the same is true for computer languages.

  James Lovelock

  Country, Book, Writing

  14 Copy quote

• Only nuclear power can now halt global warming.

  James Lovelock

  Nuclear, Global Warming, Halt

  6 Copy quote

• I know that to personalize the Earth System as Gaia, as I have often done and continue to do in this book, irritates the scientifically correct, but I am unrepentant because metaphors are more than ever needed for a widespread comprehension of the true nature of the Earth and an understanding of the lethal dangers that lie ahead.

  James Lovelock

  Lying, Book, Understanding

  9 Copy quote

• I suspect any worries about genetic engineering may be unnecessary. Genetic mutations have always happened naturally, anyway.

  James Lovelock

  Engineering, Worry, Mutation

  25 Copy quote

• The Earth's population will be culled from today's 6.6 billion to as few as 500 million, with most of the survivors living in the far latitudes - Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Arctic Basin.

  James Lovelock

  Iceland, Environmental, Population

  "James Lovelock, the Prophet" by Jeff Goodell, www.rollingstone.com. November 1, 2007.

  10 Copy quote

• I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.

  James Lovelock

  War, Issues, Feelings

  Interview with The Guardian, March 29, 2010.

  11 Copy quote

• We are the intelligent elite among animal life on earth and whatever our mistakes, [Earth] needs us. This may seem an odd statement after all that I have said about the way 20th century humans became almost a planetary disease organism. But it has taken [Earth] 2.5 billion years to evolve an animal that can think and communicate its thoughts. If we become extinct she has little chance of evolving another.

  James Lovelock

  Mistake, Taken, Animal

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• 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.

  James Lovelock

  Wind Turbines, Energy, Windmills

  "James Lovelock on shale gas and the problem with 'greens'". Interview with Leo Hickman, www.theguardian.com. June 15, 2012.

  19 Copy quote

• If a power station were to be built down the road, I'd prefer a nuclear plant over an oil burner, and definitely over a coal burner. We simply have to lessen our consumption of fossil fuels.

  James Lovelock

  Oil, Fuel, Fossils

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• The oil companies regard nuclear power as their rival, who will reduce their profits, so they put out a lot of disinformation about nuclear power.

  James Lovelock

  Oil, Nuclear, Rivals

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• There is no clear distinction anywhere on the Earth's surface between living and nonliving matter. There is merely a hierarchy of intensity going from the 'material' environment of the rocks and the atmosphere to the living cells.

  James Lovelock

  Life, Rocks, Cells

  James Lovelock (2000). “The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth”, p.39, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Our planet consists largely of lumps of fall-out from a star-sized hydrogen bomb. Within our bodies, no less than three million atoms rendered unstable in that event still erupt every minute, releasing a tiny fraction of the energy stored from that fierce fire of long ago.

  James Lovelock

  Stars, Fall, Long Ago

  "Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth". Book by James Lovelock, 1979.

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• All the modelling we do shows that the climate is poised on the jump up to a new hot state. It is accelerating so fast that you could say that we are already in it.

  James Lovelock

  Climate, Hot, States

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• Geological change usually takes thousands of years to happen but we are seeing the climate changing not just in our lifetimes but also year by year.

  James Lovelock

  Years, Climate, Lifetime

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• We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened. The climate is doing its usual tricks. There’s nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now. The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time. The temperature has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising - carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that.

  James Lovelock

  Book, Cutting, Should Have

  "Scientist cools on climate alarmism". www.theaustralian.com.au. April 26, 2012.

  7 Copy quote

• I have heard that the Saudi Arabians are paying Greenpeace to campaign against Nuclear Power. It wouldn't surprise me at all.

  James Lovelock

  Nuclear, Campaigns, Surprise

  85 Copy quote

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