I had the privilidge of seeing James Lovelock talk recently in London. As a complete hero of mine I'd wanted to see him for a long time, so when the chance came up I was there like a shot. It was a discussion held at the Science Museum and was the first time I'd been back there since I was in short trousers !
What a completely inspirational guy he is. Now in his 90th year and with 200 scientific papers to his name, he really is one of the world's most remarkable scientists. Most famously he developed the Gaia theory which shows how the world controls its own climate to maintain a steady state - a state that is comfortable for life to flourish. Previously people had thought that the world happended to "just right" owing to its position in space - not too hot, not too cold, just like Goldilock's porridge. But Lovelock showed that this is not so.
Instead he demonstrated that the action of life itself seeks to maintain the happy medium, with plant life playing a huge role in regulating clouds, rainfall, greenhouse gases and temperature.
Of course we are now "messing about" - as Lovelock puts it with classic understatement - with all this. We chop down huge amounts of natural forest. We inject huge amounts of additional greenhouse gases into the air. We take plantlife from large amounts of land just to feed our 7billion mouths. We pull vast amounts of life out of the sea.
All this is pushing the world into a different state - which Lovelock believes it will flip to relatively quickly. This is a hotter state - about 5'C hotter on average - the warm up will be sudden and chaotic. It will see most of the world's population perish. Only places near the poles (including UK) will remain suitably habitable for agriculture and human life.
"I have become an unwilling Casandra" he explained. "But the evidence is overwhelming".
Try as I might, as a lifelong engineer, I find it hard to fault his logic. In fact he is a hero to me precisely because his logic is so sound and he works as a independent scientist. What it does do though is reinforce the need for us ALL to make as much difference to our own consumption patterns and Carbon emissions now.
Start today and you'll save more CO2 than if you leave it until tomorrow.