‘Enjoy life while you can’ | From the Guardian | The Guardian
n 1965 executives at Shell wanted to know what the world would look like in the year 2000. They consulted a range of experts, who speculated about fusion-powered hovercrafts and “all sorts of fanciful technological stuff”. When the oil company asked the scientist James Lovelock, he predicted that the main problem in 2000 would be the environment. “It will be worsening then to such an extent that it will seriously affect their business,” he said.

“And of course,” Lovelock says, with a smile 43 years later, “that’s almost exactly what’s happened.”

Don’t read the whole article if you are depressed as this gentleman has a brutal view of the future. He does have the credentials:

Working alone since the age of 40, he invented a device that detected CFCs, which helped detect the growing hole in the ozone layer, and introduced the Gaia hypothesis, a revolutionary theory that the Earth is a self-regulating super-organism. Initially ridiculed by many scientists as new age nonsense, today that theory forms the basis of almost all climate science.

I disagree with him regarding carbon-offsets, recycling and windmills. I think personal production of electricity is where it’s at. Let 10,000 windmills bloom!

I think even if his predictions should be correct we need to move forward and if nothing else teach the next generations, among whom the survivors will be. Which leads me to another question. When will the first politician dare speak about population control? My guess is 2015. The first one mentioning it will sacrifice him/herself as s/he will be shouted down. The second one will most certainly not be elected, but one day it will become obvious that the rate of human reproduction is responsible for many of our woes.