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Home Front: Culture Wars
Gaia scientist Lovelock predicts planetary wipeout
2006-11-29
He's baaaack... Though he's a certifiable zoomer, it is fun to see how he infuriates the global climate thingy scamsters.
The earth has a fever that could boost temperatures by 8 degrees Celsius making large parts of the surface uninhabitable and threatening billions of peoples' lives, a controversial climate scientist said on Tuesday.

James Lovelock, who angered climate scientists with his Gaia theory of a living planet and then alienated environmentalists by backing nuclear power, said a traumatized earth might only be able to support less than a tenth of it's 6 billion people. "We are not all doomed. An awful lot of people will die, but I don't see the species dying out," he told a news conference. "A hot earth couldn't support much over 500 million. Almost all of the systems that have been looked at are in positive feedback ... and soon those effects will be larger than any of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions from industry and so on around the world," he added.
Posted by:.com

#17  Yup.

Posted by: FOTSGreg   2006-11-29 17:24  

#16  David Gerrold? Wasn't he the author of the Star Trek classic, The Trouble with Tribbles?
Posted by: Bobby   2006-11-29 17:19  

#15  The Ultimate destruction of Earth : "Gaia theory" warfare, where one entire predatory ecosystem replace its target.

Now that's a surprise!

David Gerrold and I corresponded for a couple of years. I met him in person for a consult at the San Francisco WorldCon event after I had redesigned his ecology for him and spent 2 years running a Chtorr Wars-based D&D campaign for some friends. I had also sent him more than 200 pages worth of material detailing the campaign, the ecology, and the world - much of which he neglected in his books.

A friend of mine recently stated that I basically invented his entire ecology for him (including graphs of predator/prey ratios, food webs, details on behavior and ecology of both flora and fauna, and a lot more).

In hindsight, though I received no credit for it, I did a helluva' lot of work involved in the details of some of those books though I received zero credit for it.

I am currently working on a (scifi) novel that deals with giant insects, global warming mysteries, invasive species, emergent species, and the effects on global humanity. I'm calling it "Emergence". In the process of the research for this book (or books) I've contacted numerous scientific authorities in regard to such things as certain herbicides making kudzu grow faster, and have scheduled a consultation with a UC Berkeley entomologist and a tour of the UC Berkeley Insectary.

It's gonna' be fun to write the "Them" or the "The Beginning of the End" for the 21st Century (using real science).

Posted by: FOTSGreg   2006-11-29 16:37  

#14  Forget it. The Earth is doomed. Let's go back and terraform Mars. And do it right this time!
Posted by: SteveS   2006-11-29 16:33  

#13  What I don't get is that if you love the planet and think the humans should die why wouldn't you be pro-global warming as it will bring about that end and the great glorious Earth will then repair itself in peace.

Unless, of course, you're a watermelon and your main goal is to screw with the West and America and the environment is just the handy screwdriver to use.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2006-11-29 15:12  

#12  We got an ETA on this? I'm debating on whether to refinance...
Posted by: tu3031   2006-11-29 13:01  

#11  The Ultimate destruction of Earth : "Gaia theory" warfare, where one entire predatory ecosystem replace its target.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-11-29 12:07  

#10  At Nuclearspace.com, we were overjoyed at Lovelock's defection to the pro-nuclear ranks. He may be a zoomer, but he's our zoomer now.
Take that, Nader.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2006-11-29 11:16  

#9  Funny stuff, CF. The electromagnetic destruction of the Earth's core sounds like a typical 6th grade mad scientist scheme. Gotta love the handwaving in "attached to the core".

As for the positive feedback, this is good because positive feedback will increase the Earth's self-esteem and we all know the importance of self-esteem to a healthy lifestyle.
Posted by: SteveS   2006-11-29 10:09  

#8  I guess the upside is these idiots die as well.

MAD MAX THE PLANET!!!
Posted by: DarthVader   2006-11-29 09:52  

#7  That Lovelock character is in for a big surprise when the first of my orbiting pods bombards the surface with flower-toxins. Then my Barbie army will descend from space to set about repopulating the Earth.
Posted by: Excalibur   2006-11-29 09:50  

#6  usenet group: alt.destroy.the.earth

What happened to alt.pave.the.earth?
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2006-11-29 08:41  

#5  We dont need to destroy the Earth, George W. Bush will do it for us. Bush will destroy all life on our planet, unless we take control and dispose of Bush and his power. IMPEACH BUSH NOW !!!!

Ha! Even this group has trolls! :-)
Posted by: gorb   2006-11-29 06:07  

#4  Almost all of the systems that have been looked at are in positive feedback

Ah yes, the mythic positive feedbacks. They know that the CO2 greenhouse effect can't produce more than a small fraction of the warming they predict, therefore positive feedbacks will cause it.

Apart from the fact they can't find these feedbacks, if they did exist they would have been triggered by past warm periods and the earth would already be 8C warmer than it is.

It isn't, therefore they don't exist.
Posted by: phil_b   2006-11-29 02:15  

#3  What's the problem, they're for sustanability.
Posted by: anonymous2u   2006-11-29 01:56  

#2  Just wait until the moon finally breaks away. Or we get hit by a sizable asteroid. Or a supervolcano gets hinky. Or the Dems take the WH, too.

All same same.
Posted by: .com   2006-11-29 01:15  

#1  You know there is a usenet group which is entirly dedicated to finding ways to destroy the earth. This would fit right in. I used to read it for fun about 10 years ago. Here are some samples:

.... attaching a MASSIVE electromagnet (which is anchored into the core) and has billions of GigaAmps going through it and about the same Voltage as Current then have it pull the world into the sun (which has iron inside it)

Then theres....

... the earth has an EM field, given that some huge percentage of the planet is iron, yes?

Would it be possible to destabilize it in some way, thereby allowing the planet to be ripped apart by it's own magnetic forces?

And of course:

We dont need to destroy the Earth, George W. Bush will do it for us. Bush will destroy all life on our planet, unless we take control and dispose of Bush and his power. IMPEACH BUSH NOW !!!!

usenet group: alt.destroy.the.earth
Posted by: CrazyFool   2006-11-29 00:40  

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