Lovelock believes global warming is now irreversible, and that nothing can prevent large parts of the planet becoming too hot to inhabit, or sinking underwater, resulting in mass migration, famine and epidemics. Britain is going to become a lifeboat for refugees from mainland Europe, so instead of wasting our time on wind turbines we need to start planning how to survive. To Lovelock, the logic is clear. The sustainability brigade are insane to think we can save ourselves by going back to nature; our only chance of survival will come not from less technology, but more.
Nuclear power, he argues, can solve our energy problem – the bigger challenge will be food. “Maybe they’ll synthesise food. I don’t know. Synthesising food is not some mad visionary idea; you can buy it in Tesco’s, in the form of Quorn. It’s not that good, but people buy it. You can live on it.” But he fears we won’t invent the necessary technologies in time, and expects “about 80%” of the world’s population to be wiped out by 2100. Prophets have been foretelling Armageddon since time began, he says. “But this is the real thing.”
[…]
What would Lovelock do now, I ask, if he were me? He smiles and says: “Enjoy life while you can. Because if you’re lucky it’s going to be 20 years before it hits the fan.”
Contra: A skeptical look at the economics of nuclear energy from the Nation
May 26, 2008 at 7:51 pm
?Enjoy life while you can.” Good advice. But he’s wrong about Quorn, that stuff is delicious.
May 27, 2008 at 2:50 am
Mmmm… he states in the original article that you “may have 20 years to enjoy it”. that lines up quite nicely when kurzweils singularity theory is meant to climax, as such, maybe we will increase at a pace commensurate with the general collapse of the world around us.
that is, really fucking quickly.
maybe the solution will appear.
May 27, 2008 at 2:40 pm
it’s not that bad, but it’s not nearly as not-bad as most of the people saying it’s not that bad are saying. wait, is that the environment or the US economy?
quorn is oddly delicious, even if it does have that it-came-from-outer-space mouthfeel
May 29, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Reminds me of good ol’ Kurt Vonnegut’s last days, when he said our generation was fucked and mostly worthless. HEY THANKS GRANDPA!