'Environmental scientist James Lovelock, renowned for his terrifying predictions of climate change's deadly impact on the planet, has gone back on his previous claims, admitting they were 'alarmist'. The 92-year-old Briton, who also developed the Gaia theory of the Earth as a single organism, has said climate change is still happening - just not as quickly as he once warned.
He added that other environmental commentators, such as former vice president Al Gore, are also guilty of exaggerating their arguments. The admission comes as a devastating blow to proponents of climate change who regard Lovelock as a powerful figurehead. Five years ago, he had claimed: 'Before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.' But in an interview with msnbc.com, he admitted: 'I made a mistake.'
He said: 'The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing,' he told '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. '[The temperature] has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising - carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that.' After two books - Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth Is Fighting Back and How We Can Still Save Humanity, and The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning: Enjoy It While You Can - he is writing a third.'
I take no pleasure in confirming that Sir James Lovelock is another Royal Society Fellow. I don't know what the data trends are for climate, but I can see a trend emerging with the Royal Society and crackpot Malthusian propagandists.
A reader has alerted me to a BBC documentary tonight called 'Four Born Every Second' on population and poverty at 10.35pm on BBC One. The Open University have teamed up with the Non-profit organisation Steps International has created the 'Why Poverty?' initiative as a groundbreaking cross-media project to help audiences across the world understand what they can do about poverty.
The project creates an international partnership with broadcasters such as the BBC, NGOs, institutions such as The Open University and concerned citizens around the world. Helpfully, the nations of the World are being helped by the extrapolation of statistics which are measured to help institutions to form a Human Development Index based on gender equality, empowerment and access to reproductive health.
At last, a BBC documentary with no obvious left-wing eugenic agenda waiting in the wings. Oh, no wait...
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