“What we need is a book of knowledge written so well as to constitute literature in its own right. Something for anyone interested in the state of the Earth and of us - a manual for living well and for survival. The quality of its writing must be such that it would serve for pleasure, for devotional reading, as a source of facts and even as a primary school text. It would range from simple things such as how to light a fire, to our place in the solar system and the universe. It would be a primer of philosophy and science - it would provide a top-down look at the Earth and us. It would explain the natural selection of all living things, and give the key facts of medicine, including the ciculation of the blood, the role of the organs. The discovery that bacteria and viruses caused infectious diseases is relatively recent; imagine the consequences if such knowledge was lost. In its time the Bible set the constraints for behaviour and for health. WE need a new book like the Bible that would serve in the same way but acknowledge science. It would explain properties like temperature, the meaning of their scales of measurement and how to measure them. It would list the periodic table of the elements. It would give an account of the air, the rocks, and the oceans. It would give schoolchildren of today a proper understanding of our civilization and of the planet it occupies. It would inform them at an age when their minds were most receptive and give them facts they would remember for a lifetime. It would also be the survival manual for our successors. A book that was readily available should disaster happen. It would help bring science back as part of our culture and be an inheritance. Whatever else may be wrong with science, it still provides the best explanation we have of the material world.” BookScienceNatureBibleSolution Book:We Belong to Gaia Source: We Belong to Gaia
“Imagine a survivor of a failed civilization with only a tattered book on aromatherapy for guidance in arresting a cholera epidemic. Yet, such a book would more likely be found amid the debris than a comprehensible medical text.” BookScienceFoundImagineCivilizationMedicalGuidanceSurvivorEpidemicsCholeraDebrisArrestingAromatherapy Author:James Lovelock
“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.” KnowsYearsBookProblemClearCuttingHappenedMinesYears AgoClimateAlarmists Author:James Lovelock
“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. 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. The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time. The temperature has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising - carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that.” KnowsWorldShouldYearsHas BeensBookProblemClearCuttingHappenedMinesHappeningsYears AgoShould HaveConstantClimateTricksSupposed To BeRisingReasonableUsualTwelveCarbonHalfwayTemperatureShould Have BeenMillenniumCarbon DioxideFryingAlarmists Author:James Lovelock
“Composing computer programs to solve scientific problems is like writing poetry. You must choose every word with care and link it with the other words in perfect syntax. There is no place for verbosity or carelessness. To become fluent in a computer lnaguage demands almost the antithesis of modern loose thinking. It requires many interactive sessions, the hands-on use of the device. You do not learn a foreign language from a book, rather you have to live in the country for year to let the langauge become an automatic part of you, and the same is true for computer languages.” ThinkingWritingYearsBookCountryUseProblemHandsCareLanguagePerfectLearningModernDemandComputerProgramSolveProgrammingDevicesLinksSessionComposingComputer LanguageForeign LanguageWriting PoetryAntithesisCarelessnessInteractiveSyntaxFluent Author:James Lovelock
“I know that to personalize the Earth System as Gaia, as I have often done and continue to do in this book, irritates the scientifically correct, but I am unrepentant because metaphors are more than ever needed for a widespread comprehension of the true nature of the Earth and an understanding of the lethal dangers that lie ahead.” KnowsBookDoneEarthLyingUnderstandingDangerNeededMetaphorComprehensionTrue NatureGaia Author:James Lovelock
