More than 30 years ago,
the scientist and inventor,
James Lovelock
, had the
idea that the Earth was a
single living organism,
which he called
Gaia
after
the Greek goddess. “The
climate and chemical
properties
of the Earth now and throughout its history
seem always to have been
optimal
for life,” he said.
However, in his book,
The Revenge of Gaia
,
Lovelock predicts that billions of people will die by
the end of the century, with the
survivors forced
to
live in the Arctic. He claims that the greenhouse
effect and the spread of humanity have begun to
affect
habitat and biodiversity so much that Gaia will
not be able to
cope
. In his view, nuclear energy is
the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels that could
provide
mankind with the large scale energy source
it needs while also reducing greenhouse
emissions
.
He suggests, "We have to realise how little time is
left to act, and then each nation must find the best
use of their resources to
maintain
civilisation for as
long as they can."
A
Global Ecologists
MODULE 4
15
Amory Lovins
is a
visionary
who has seen
many of his ideas become
reality. Lovins founded the
Rocky Mountain Institute
that develops low-energy
devices
, such as the
hypercar that runs on
hydrogen. “It emits nothing but drinking water, but it
performs like a Porsche,” he says.
In his latest book,
Winning the Oil Endgame
, Lovins
doesn't talk about the environment as a social or
ethical issue, instead he argues that governments and
businesses should
value
what nature provides.
“Protecting the climate is not costly but profitable for
the obvious reason that it's cheaper to save fuel than
to buy it,” he explains. “Population growth and
consumption make it tougher to keep nature's
services
flowing
to us, but there's even more
progress in technologies that can get so much more
out of our energy and water resources.” Lovins sees a
future without the pollution and political problems of
relying on fossil fuels like oil. “
Eliminating
energy
waste,” he insists, “is just as useful as a new oil well
or
power plant
, and it’s kinder to the environment.”
D
Over the last 50 years,
Sir
David Attenborough
has
explored and explained
virtually
every aspect of
life on planet Earth. His
autobiography,
Life on Air
,
follows a career in which
he invented the modern
television wildlife programme and became one of the
world's best known
broadcasters
and
naturalists
. “The
natural world is the greatest source of excitement, visual
beauty and
intellectual
interest,” he says.
Sir David was also the first on prime-time television to
address humanity's
impact
on the planet. “It's a moral
question about whether we have the right to exterminate
species and leave a world that is poorer than the one we
inherited
.” He asks, “Are we happy to imagine that our
grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant
except in a picture book?”
However, Sir David has a positive
outlook
on the future,
“I think there will be
radical
changes,” he explains, “but
I don't think the natural world will be reduced to rats
and cockroaches, nor do I think that the plant world will
be reduced to some kind of desert.”
C
Wangari Maathai
began
her role as an
environmental
campaigner in 1977,
when she founded the
Green Belt Movement
in
Kenya. Since then, it has
planted over 30 million
trees and provided work for thousands of women.
In her book,
The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the
Approach and the Experience
, Wangari explains how
forests affect the availability of rain and underground
water as well as
soil fertility
and clean air. “The
link
between the
rural
population and natural resources is
very direct. There is
illegal logging
and so there is
soil erosion
and no clean water to drink,” she says.
In 2004, Wangari became the first African woman to
be awarded the Nobel peace prize for her contribution
to
sustainable
development, democracy and peace.
She says, “We are aware that our children have a
right to a world which is free of pollution, rich with
biological diversity and has a climate which will
sustain all forms of life.”
B
