Quote

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.

James Lovelock

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

James Lovelock
Age: 105
Beekeeper
Biochemist
Biologist
Chemist
Ecologist
Environmentalist
Meteorologist
Mythographer
Science Fiction Writer
Scientist
Letchworth
Hertfordshire
James Ephraim Lovelock
James E. Lovelock
James E Lovelock
J. E. Lovelock
J E Lovelock
Jim Lovelock
J. Lovelock
J.E. Lovelock
J Lovelock
Lovelock
Lovelock J
Lovelock J.
Lovelock J. E.
Lovelock JE
Enough
Handle
Really
Climate
Think
Huge
Inertia
Thinking
Situation
Evolved
Point
Complexes
Change
Complex
Anything
Clever
Humans
Meaningful

More quotes by James Lovelock

Image
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.
James Lovelock
Image
So-called 'sustainable development' is meaningless drivel.
James Lovelock
Image
I would only have been too pleased if someone had asked me for my data. If you really believed in your data, you wouldn't mind someone looking at it. You should be able to respond that if you don't believe me go out and do the measurements yourself.
James Lovelock
Image
Humans on the Earth behave in some ways like a pathogenic micro-organism, or like the cells of a tumor.
James Lovelock
Image
If you start any large theory, such as quantum mechanics, plate tectonics, evolution, it takes about 40 years for mainstream science to come around. Gaia has been going for only 30 years or so.
James Lovelock
Image
A billion could live off the earth 6 billion living as we do is far too many, and you run out of planet in no time.
James Lovelock
Image
There is little evidence that our individual intelligence has improved through recorded history.
James Lovelock
Image
Nowadays if you're dependent on a grant - and 99% of them are - you can't make mistakes as you won't get another one if you do.
James Lovelock
Image
Just after World War II, this country led the world in science by every way you could measure it, yet the number of scientists was a tiny proportion of what it is now.
James Lovelock
Image
Civilization in its present form hasn't got long.
James Lovelock
Image
One thing that being a scientist has taught me is that you can never be certain about anything. You never know the truth. You can only approach it and hope to get a bit nearer to it each time. You iterate towards the truth. You don't know it.
James Lovelock
Image
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.
James Lovelock
Image
Science always uses metaphor.
James Lovelock
Image
I wouldn't be against them (large wind turbines) if they actually worked.
James Lovelock
Image
By the end of this century, climate change will reduce the human population to a few breeding pairs surviving near the Arctic.
James Lovelock
Image
I'm not a pessimist, even though I do think awful things are going to happen.
James Lovelock
Image
The entire range of living matter on Earth from whales to viruses and from oaks to algae could be regarded as constituting a single living entity capable of maintaining the Earth's atmosphere to suit its overall needs and endowed with faculties and powers far beyond those of its constituent parts.
James Lovelock
Image
Geological change usually takes thousands of years to happen but we are seeing the climate changing not just in our lifetimes but also year by year.
James Lovelock
Image
We rushed into renewable energy without any thought. The schemes are largely hopelessly inefficient and unpleasant. I personally can't stand windmills at any price.
James Lovelock
Image
We need a more authoritative world...What's the alternative to democracy? There isn't one. But even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.
James Lovelock