The Prophet of Climate Change: James Lovelock
One of the most eminent scientists of our time says that global warming is irreversible — and that more than 6 billion people will perish by the end of the century...
At the age of eighty-eight, after four children and a long and respected career as one of the twentieth century's most influential scientists, James Lovelock has come to an unsettling conclusion: The human race is doomed. "I wish I could be more hopeful," he tells me one sunny morning as we walk through a park in Oslo, where he is giving a talk at a university. Lovelock is a small man, unfailingly polite, with white hair and round, owlish glasses. His step is jaunty, his mind lively, his manner anything but gloomy. In fact, the coming of the Four Horsemen -- war, famine, pestilence and death -- seems to perk him up. "It will be a dark time," Lovelock admits. "But for those who survive, I suspect it will be rather exciting."
In Lovelock's view, the scale of the catastrophe that awaits us will soon become obvious. By 2020, droughts and other extreme weather will be commonplace. 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. "The Chinese have nowhere to go but up into Siberia," Lovelock says. "How will the Russians feel about that? I fear that war between Russia and China is probably inevitable." With hardship and mass migrations will come epidemics, which are likely to kill millions. By 2100, Lovelock believes, 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.
4 comments:
Yeah yeah yeah whatever... what do dey say about da new Springsteen CD?
The record starts with "Radio Nowhere," a song about a guy out on the road looking for a connection.
It's an end-of-the-world scenario — he's seeing the apocalypse. All communications are down: "Trying to find my way home/All I heard was a drone bouncing off a satellite/Crushing the last lone American night."
Oh, phokk...
Who cares? We'll be dead by then, and at our current rate, will we have any spawn to worry about?
Decker probably has a few out deres - but udder dan dat...
Well, it sez major shit will be happening by 2020. Presumably, fire notwithstanding, we'll all still be here.
I think future generations will be delighted to know that their apocamolyptical suffering and excruciating special extinction bought us a few extra years of comfortable complacency. What kind of ingrates do you think we're raising?
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