{"id":7940,"date":"2012-06-22T14:22:58","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T21:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=7940"},"modified":"2012-06-23T15:23:36","modified_gmt":"2012-06-23T22:23:36","slug":"godfather-of-global-warming-criticizes-climate-change-hysteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/godfather-of-global-warming-criticizes-climate-change-hysteria\/","title":{"rendered":"Godfather of Global Warming Criticizes Climate Change Hysteria"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Globalby Lorrie Goldstein –
\nTwo months ago, James Lovelock, the godfather of global warming, gave a startling interview to msnbc.com<\/a> in which he acknowledged he had been unduly \u201calarmist\u201d about climate change. The implications were extraordinary.<\/p>\n

Lovelock is a world-renowned scientist and environmentalist whose Gaia theory \u2014 that the Earth operates as a single, living organism \u2014 has had a profound impact on the development of global warming theory.<\/p>\n

Unlike many \u201cenvironmentalists,\u201d who have degrees in political science, Lovelock, until his recent retirement at age 92, was a much-honoured working scientist and academic. <\/p>\n

His inventions have been used by NASA, among many other scientific organizations. Lovelock\u2019s invention of the electron capture detector in 1957 first enabled scientists to measure CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) and other pollutants in the atmosphere, leading, in many ways, to the birth of the modern environmental movement. <\/p>\n

Lovelock: “the problem is we don\u2019t know what the climate is doing”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Having observed that global temperatures since the turn of the millennium have not gone up in the way computer-based climate models predicted, Lovelock acknowledged, \u201cthe problem is we don\u2019t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago.\u201d Now, Lovelock has given a follow-up interview to the UK\u2019s Guardian newspaper in which he delivers more bombshells sure to anger the global green movement, which for years worshipped his Gaia theory and apocalyptic predictions that billions would die from man-made climate change by the end of this century.<\/p>\n

Lovelock: “the doomsday predictions were incorrect”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Lovelock still believes anthropogenic global warming is occurring and that mankind must lower its greenhouse gas emissions, but says it\u2019s now clear the doomsday predictions, including his own (and Al Gore\u2019s) were incorrect.<\/p>\n

He responds to attacks on his revised views by noting that, unlike many climate scientists who fear a loss of government funding if they admit error, as a freelance scientist, he\u2019s never been afraid to revise his theories in the face of new evidence. Indeed, that\u2019s how science advances.<\/p>\n

Among his observations to the Guardian:<\/p>\n

(1<\/strong>) A long-time supporter of nuclear power as a way to lower greenhouse gas emissions, which has made him unpopular with environmentalists, Lovelock has now come out in favour of natural gas fracking (which environmentalists also oppose), as a low-polluting alternative to coal.<\/p>\n

As Lovelock observes, \u201cGas is almost a give-away in the U.S. at the moment. They\u2019ve gone for fracking in a big way. This is what makes me very cross with the greens for trying to knock it \u2026 Let\u2019s be pragmatic and sensible and get Britain to switch everything to methane. We should be going mad on it.\u201d (Kandeh Yumkella, co-head of a major United Nations program on sustainable energy, made similar arguments last week at a UN environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro, advocating the development of conventional and unconventional natural gas resources as a way to reduce deforestation and save millions of lives in the Third World.)<\/p>\n

the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

(2<\/strong>) Lovelock blasted greens for treating global warming like a religion.
\n\u201cIt just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion,\u201d Lovelock observed. \u201cI don\u2019t think people have noticed that, but it\u2019s got all the sort of terms that religions use \u2026 The greens use guilt. That just shows how religious greens are. You can\u2019t win people round by saying they are guilty for putting (carbon dioxide) in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

(3<\/strong>) Lovelock mocks the idea modern economies can be powered by wind turbines.
\nAs he puts it, \u201cso-called \u2018sustainable development\u2019 \u2026 is meaningless drivel \u2026 We rushed into renewable energy without any thought. The schemes are largely hopelessly inefficient and unpleasant. I personally can\u2019t stand windmills at any price.\u201d<\/p>\n

(4<\/strong>) Finally, about claims \u201cthe science is settled\u201d on global warming: \u201cOne thing that being a scientist has taught me is that you can never be certain about anything. You never know the truth. You can only approach it and hope to get a bit nearer to it each time. You iterate towards the truth. You don\u2019t know it.\u201d <\/p>\n

HT: Toronto Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Lorrie Goldstein – Two months ago, James Lovelock, the godfather of global warming, gave a startling interview to msnbc.com in which he acknowledged he had been unduly \u201calarmist\u201d about climate change. The implications were extraordinary. Lovelock is a world-renowned scientist and environmentalist whose Gaia theory \u2014 that the Earth operates as a single, living … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[75,38,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-warming","category-junk-science","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}