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James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’
Fracking is great, the green movement is a religion, his dire predictions about climate change were nonsense – and robots don’t mind the heat, so what does it matter? At 97, the creator of Gaia theory is as mischievous and subversive as ever
James Lovelock’s parting words last time we met were: “Enjoy life while you can. Because if you’re lucky, it’s going to be 20 years before it hits the fan.” It was early 2008, and the distinguished scientist was predicting imminent and irreversible global warming, which would soon make large parts of the planet uninhabitably hot or put them underwater. The fashionable hope that windfarms or recycling could prevent global famine and mass migration was, he assured me, a fantasy; it was too late for ethical consumption to save us. Before the end of this century, 80% of the world’s population would be wiped out.
His predictions were not easy to forget or dismiss. Sometimes described as a futurist, Lovelock has been Britain’s leading independent scientist for more than 50 years. His Gaia hypothesis, which contends that the earth is a single, self-regulating organism, is now accepted as the founding principle of most climate science, and his invention of a device to detect CFCs helped identify the hole in the ozone layer. A defiant generalist in an era of increasingly specialised study, and a mischievous provocateur, Lovelock is regarded by many as a scientific genius.
Continue reading...Rosetta mission ends in comet collision
Hinkley Point C developers face £7.2bn cleanup bill at end of nuclear plant's life
French and Chinese developers will be the first nuclear operators in the UK that will have to pay to decommission the site
The French and Chinese companies that are to build the £18bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power station will have to pay up to £7.2bn to dismantle and clean it up.
Documents published yesterday reveal for the first time how much the developers, EDF and China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), will have to pay to decommission the plant, beginning in 2083.
Amazon’s pink river dolphins reveal the bizarre impacts of seafood fraud
In recent years numbers of South America’s freshwater dolpins have fallen. But they’re not being caught to eat, but as bait for a common catfish being fraudulently sold under a different name
This month, marine conservation NGO Oceana released a major report on seafood fraud, which reviewed more than 200 scientific studies that had collectively examined over 25,000 fish samples from around the world. Through its analysis, Oceana was able to show that an astonishing one in five seafood samples globally is mislabelled to represent other species and mislead consumers. Nestled within that report was the case of the Amazon river dolphins – a peculiar testimony to the often bizarre, trickle-down effects of seafood fraud.
These freshwater dolphins occupy the Amazon and Orinoco river basins that stretch across the northern half of South America. They have historically been abundant across this vast watery network, and are protected by law, making it illegal to kill them. But for years, poachers have been targeting the dolphins and using them as bait to catch a much smaller type of catfish.
Continue reading...Protect the Peel: one of America’s last wildernesses under threat – in pictures
The fate of the Peel watershed in northern Yukon is at the centre of an extended legal battle between the territorial government and First Nations. The case is one of many conflicts over natural resource development to test Canada’s commitment to reconciliation and indigenous rights
Continue reading...The Wrap: Trump v Clinton, the Adelaide storm and Wyatt Roy
From Patagonia to Purbeck: your wild camping photos
From isolated mountain ranges to a pitch under a road bridge, our readers shared their most enjoyable wild camping experiences
England needs almost double the number of marine zones to ensure healthy seas
Conservationists say 48 new protected areas are needed to fill the gaps in the ‘blue belt’ coastal network to ensure wildlife can flourish
Conservationists have called for the creation of a further 48 protected areas in English waters that would “fill in the gaps” of a national network designed to ensure healthy and productive seas.
If designated, they would add to the 50 existing marine conservation zones (MCZs) and create an “ecologically coherent network” where habitats and wildlife could flourish, according to a report from the Wildlife Trusts.
Continue reading...Reaction to SA storms shows why Aussies are switching off politics
Summer leaves await a glorious autumnal death
Symonds Yat Rock, Forest of Dean This is an old world forest; organic, unwieldly, fecund, oaky – forest as nature wanted
Summer’s end, and the forest is thick. Beneath the leaves, the sun creates puddles of bright and black, through a canopy still swollen enough to block most of its light. Roads are green tunnels. Paths are dark and have a warm smell, the dense flotilla-dust of bug, web and sap lit brilliantly in the air. Soon the forest leaves will burn, through every shade of russet, to glorious autumnal death.
The Forest of Dean is an old world forest; organic, unwieldy, fecund, oaky. Forest as nature wanted, not the sterile, shadowed ranks of spruce that too often masquerade as such. In high summer a walk under the canopy seduces, in autumn one through its fresh decay beguiles. But now the more subtle charms of September’s change-month call for a higher lookout.
Continue reading...Dumb politics means we may be stuck with an even dumber grid
13 projects from across the globe to be honoured at UN Climate Conference in Marrakech
Stuff we can blame on renewables
Lyon partners with Mitsubishi for 1GW solar + battery storage plan
How can fossil fuel supplies be constrained?
Chart of the year: ‘Incredible’ price drops jumpstart clean energy revolution
Labor states accuse Turnbull of “ignorant rubbish” on renewable energy
Uhlmann’s bizarre prediction of “national blackout” if we pursue wind and solar
Safeguard dolphins, government urged
Snake-handler shortage starting to bite in north Queensland
Female snakes, hungry after waiting for their eggs to hatch, are heading indoors in search of food such as rats
A shortage of volunteer snake-handlers is starting to bite in north Queensland, where an end-of-breeding-season influx of hungry reptiles into homes is driving an increase in the number of calls for help.
The need for sustenance by female snakes that have shed weight while waiting for their eggs to hatch has driven them indoors in search of food, including rats.
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