“Ask almost anybody if they think the climate?s changed in the last couple of decades and they will all say ?yes? and give you lots of examples.” IfsThinkingGivingRealityLastsAsksExampleChangedCoupleClimateDecades Author:James Lovelock
“I don't think we're yet evolved to the point where we're clever enough to handle a complex a situation as climate change. The inertia of humans is so huge that you can't really do anything meaningful.” ThinkingHumansEnoughSituationHugeClimateComplexesClimate ChangeMeaningfulCleverHandleInertia Author:James Lovelock
“It just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion. I don't think people have noticed that, but it's got all the sort of terms that religions use. The greens use guilt. That just shows how religious greens are. You can't win people round by saying they are guilty for putting (carbon dioxide) in the air.” PeopleThinkingUseShowsHappensChristianWinningTermReligiousAirGreenGuiltRoundsClimate ChangeGuiltyGlobal WarmingCarbonCan't WinCarbon Dioxide Author:James Lovelock
“What I tend to do is to wake about five in the morning-this happens quite often-think about the invention, and then image it in my mind in 3D, as a kind of construct. Then I do experiments with the image...sort of rotate it, and say, 'Well what'll happen if one does this?' And by the time I get up for breakfast I can usually go to the bench and make a string and sealing wax model that works straight off, because I've done most of the experiments already.” IfsThinkingMindWellsKindDoeI CanDoneHappensImaginationMorningFiveModelsExperimentsInventionGet UpStringsBreakfastConstructsBenches Author:James Lovelock
“We are the intelligent elite among animal life on earth and whatever our mistakes, [Earth] needs us. This may seem an odd statement after all that I have said about the way 20th century humans became almost a planetary disease organism. But it has taken [Earth] 2.5 billion years to evolve an animal that can think and communicate its thoughts. If we become extinct she has little chance of evolving another.” IfsThinkingWayNeedsYearsHumansMayLittlesSaidSeemsEarthChanceAnimalMistakeTakenCenturyDiseaseIntelligentCommunicateBillionsStatementsEvolveOddElitesOrganisms20th CenturyAnimal Life Author:James Lovelock
“I think that we reject the evidence that our world is changing because we are still, as that wonderfully wise biologist E. O. Wilson reminded us, tribal carnivores. We are programmed by our inheritance to see other living things as mainly something to eat, and we care more about our national tribe than anything else. We will even give our lives for it and are quite ready to kill other humans in the cruellest of ways for the good of our tribe. We still find alien the concept that we and the rest of life, from bacteria to whales, are parts of the much larger and diverse entity, the living Earth.” ThinkingWorldWayGivingHumansStillsCareEarthWiseOur LivesReadyConceptsEvidenceAliensRejectsOur WorldDiverseEntityTribesInheritanceLiving ThingsWhalesWilsonBiologistBacteriaRest Of LifeCarnivores 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'm not a pessimist, even though I do think awful things are going to happen.” ThinkingHappensAwfulPessimist Author:James Lovelock
