Barking up the wrong tree?

The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning, by James Lovelock

He Knew He Was Right: The Irrepressible Life of James Lovelock and Gaia, by John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin

James Lovelock is an English scientist, recip- ient of many awards, and he is a pleasant writer, moderate in tone and conciliatory towards his critics. In the late 1960s he became famous in New Age circles for his Gaia theory. The name, which is that of the old Greek goddess of Earth, was suggested to him by William Golding, his neighbour and pub companion in their Wiltshire village. It was immediately popular, and so was the image that Lovelock attached to it, of a self-regulating planet that has been working throughout its existence to develop the atmosphere, climate and other conditions necessary for sustaining life. Lovelock does not claim that Gaia is literally a living creature, but he answers objections by the evolutionists, who detest anything that smacks of teleology (the idea of purpose in nature), by saying that she is ‘alive’ in the same way that Richard Dawkins’s genes are ‘selfish’.

The ultimate product of Gaia is ourselves. That, according to Lovelock, is where the trouble starts. We are, he believes, like parasites, undoing all Gaia’s good work, destroying her forests, poisoning her body and veins and diminishing the diversity of her plant and animal species. This has been going on for a long time, from when we were slash-and-burn nomads, and it has greatly intensified in modern times, with the industrial revolution followed by the wasteful elaborations of our global economy.

Unless we do something about this, very soon and very radically — reduce our numbers, stop eating meat, stay at home and give up most of the comforts we have become used to — Gaia will turn upon us with a vengeance.