5 June 2007News.com.au
HUMANS will have to learn to use the planet to save themselves if they hope to combat climate change, says Festival of Ideas speaker James Lovelock.
That's the view of Dr Lovelock, who invented the Gaia Theory that treats the world as an organism.
He is in Adelaide to speak at the Festival of Ideas, which opens tonight and runs until Sunday.
"It's going to get rough," he said of climate change.
He predicted massive change within a few decades – it will wipe out most of humanity by the end of this century, turn much of Europe into a desert by 2040 and send floods of refugees across the globe.
"It's not all bad," he said. "Think of it: the human species has been on the planet now roughly a million years.
"During the million years there have been seven jumps from ice ages to interglacials, and they represent climate change of about the same order of the one we are about to enter.
"We have survived through that and it means we can survive through this. But it doesn't mean there won't be violent changes when it happens."
Professor Lovelock said plans to sequester carbon dioxide by burying it are laughable and, while he believes nuclear energy can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, it will not solve climate change problems.
"I am co-writing a paper on how we might get the earth to save itself," he said. "I don't think humans have got the capability of doing it themselves."
He joins a panel tomorrow night at Adelaide Town Hall, will converse with scientist Tim Radford at Bonython Hall on Saturday at 2.30pm, and speaks on The Sustainable Retreat on Sunday at 10.30am at Bonython Hall.
