The vanishing face of gaia: a final warning

James Lovelock, Allen Lane, 192 pages, £20.00 hardback

Humans “became the Earth’s infection a long and uncertain time ago”, according to James Lovelock, the maverick scientist who developed “Gaia theory” to explain the interdependent evolution of living organisms and the Earth’s atmosphere. The book is an apocalyptic vision of the catastrophic outcomes of climate change on the Earth’s ecosystems — change Lovelock now believes is inevitable and irreversible.

His observations show that changes are happening faster than climate models predicted, suggesting that the tipping point at which the Earth’s atmosphere will lurch into a “stable hot state” of 5-6 degrees warmer is perilously close.

The ensuing struggle for resources — land, food and water — will lead to tribal warfare, mass migrations, and the deaths of billions in “planet-wide devastation,” he predicts, before the end of this century.

We need to prepare for a world in which nations such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Scandinavia alone will remain habitable as “islands of humanity” receiving an ever-growing influx of climate refugees.

Lovelock believes the carbon reduction agenda is too little, too late, and calls biofuels “an elaborate scam”. Instead he advocates nuclear energy, and believes technological solutions will provide the only route to the survival of humankind.