Thread: 'Gaia' scientist James Lovelock: I was 'alarmist' about climate change

'Gaia' scientist James Lovelock: I was 'alarmist' about climate change

By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

James Lovelock, the maverick scientist who became a guru to the environmental movement with his “Gaia” theory of the Earth as a single organism, has admitted to being “alarmist” about climate change and says other environmental commentators, such as Al Gore, were too.

Lovelock, 92, is writing a new book in which he will say climate change is still happening, but not as quickly as he once feared.

He previously painted some of the direst visions of the effects of climate change. In 2006, in an article in the U.K.’s Independent newspaper, he wrote that “before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.”

However, the professor admitted in a telephone interview with msnbc.com that he now thinks he had been “extrapolating too far."

Climate's 'usual tricks'

It will also reflect his new opinion that global warming has not occurred as he had expected.

“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. 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,” Lovelock said.

“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,” he said.

“The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time… it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising -- carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that,” he added.

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news...climate-change

Another warmist religous cult member wakes up and can see clearly again. Good for him! Those hard corp warmist scientists know now that Mother Nature is making real asses out of them. If they don't back pedal, they won't ever work in the scientific community again when proven flat out wrong about AGW.

The warmies thought they were going to get rich, all they got was the dirty end of the sewage treatment tank stirring stick. LOLOLOLOL!

The walls are crashing down. Carbon markets are going belly up. The warmmongers hoped that they could make some hey out of the usual late ENSO effects on the untied states but that fell on deaf ears. They have cried wolf too many times and people dont give a (*)(*)(*)(*).

Originally Posted by Professor Peabody

Another warmist religous cult member wakes up and can see clearly again. Good for him! Those hard corp warmist scientists know now that Mother Nature is making real asses out of them. If they don't back pedal, they won't ever work in the scientific community again when proven flat out wrong about AGW.

The warmies thought they were going to get rich, all they got was the dirty end of the sewage treatment tank stirring stick. LOLOLOLOL!

Too bad you didn't relay the position Lovelock thought was "bit too extreme"!

He said he still thought that climate change was happening, but that its effects would be felt farther in the future than he previously thought.
“We will have global warming, but it’s been deferred a bit,” Lovelock said.

Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring and attribution at the U.K.’s respected Met Office Hadley Centre, agreed Lovelock had been too alarmist with claims about people having to live in the Arctic by 2100.

The "Warmies" still have plenty to back their expectations.

Asked to give its latest position on climate change, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement that observations collected by satellites, sensors on land, in the air and seas “continue to show that the average global surface temperature is rising.”
The statement said “the impacts of a changing climate” were already being felt around the globe, with “more frequent extreme weather events of certain types (heat waves, heavy rain events); changes in precipitation patterns … longer growing seasons; shifts in the ranges of plant and animal species; sea level rise; and decreases in snow, glacier and Arctic sea ice coverage.”
NOAA reports its data in monthly U.S. and global climate reports and annual State of the Climate reports.
Its annual climate summary for 2011 said that the combined land and ocean surface temperature for the world was 0.92 degrees above the 20th century average of 57.0 degrees, making it the 35th consecutive year since 1976 that the yearly global temperature was above average.
“All 11 years of the 21st century so far (2001-2011) rank among the 13 warmest in the 132-year period of record. Only one year during the 20th century, 1998, was warmer than 2011,” it said.

Originally Posted by fiddlerdave

Too bad you didn't relay the position Lovelock thought was "bit too extreme"!



The "Warmies" still have plenty to back their expectations.

Of course warming is occurring, it has for about 4+ Billion years, so has cooling. There is just no hard evidence man has anything to do with it.

The progressive herd-like thinking is disgusting.


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Originally Posted by DonGlock26

The progressive herd-like thinking is disgusting.


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MMMoooooooooooooo! Nose to tail they go!

Originally Posted by Professor Peabody

MMMoooooooooooooo! Nose to tail they go!

The CO2 debate was the money-making ruse. Hey, look. We can do something about climate change. The real problem is methane gas produced by over-population. As usual, the capitalists are in on the debate and want to do the CO2 trade so they can make money off fear knowing they'll be dead before the methane induced sweat lodge affects them.

Originally Posted by Zosiasmom

The CO2 debate was the money-making ruse. Hey, look. We can do something about climate change. The real problem is methane gas produced by over-population. As usual, the capitalists are in on the debate and want to do the CO2 trade so they can make money off fear knowing they'll be dead before the methane induced sweat lodge affects them.

The Earth is not overpopulated.

There are 2,967,909 sq miles in Australia (according to wikipedia). There is 640 acres in each sq mile which equates to 1,899,461,760 acres (about 1.9 billion acres). If you subdivide those acres into quarter acres you get 7,597,847,040 (7.6 billion). That means you could give a quarter acre lot to every man, woman and child on the entire planet.