Tuesday, January 17, 2006

The Cynical Environmentalist

Norm draws attention to an article in yesterday's Independent about scientist James Lovelock's dire warnings that the ecosystem may have tipped over into meltdown and that the human race may face a very bleak future indeed.

Without being overly cynical about Lovelock's dramatic claims, one sentence from the article caught my eye:

"He terms this phenomenon "The Revenge of Gaia" and examines it in detail in a new book with that title, to be published next month."

Mmm. And no doubt someone will now tell me, "John, it's your sort of cynicism that's got us exactly where we are today."

2 comments:

Reidski said...

John, you know something? Its your sort of cynicism that's got us exactly where we are today!

But, seriously, isn't it really irritating when good thinking goes horribly wrong. A bit like George Monbiot, the great anti-globalisation commentator. I like much of his stuff, but one of his counters to globalisation is ... world government. And the dream of the globalisers is? World government. Stupid man! Well, okay, I may have simplified his arguments, but that's pretty much it.

John said...

Cheers, Reidski. Knew I could rely on you.

Whenever I read Monbiot I like what he has to say, but I've never actually gone out of my way to read him; it isn't like I ever violently disagree with him, rather that he seems to state the bleeding obvious (to me at any rate).

Now, world government, that DOES sound unusual. Does he volunteer to be president?