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James Lovelock

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Scientist

The Resume

    (July 26, 1919-July 26, 2022)
    Born in Letchworth, England, United Kingdom
    Chemist and environmental scientist
    Invented the electron capture detector for measuring trace amounts of chemicals in a gas (1957)
    Best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to maintain conditions for life by controlling the chemical and physical environment
    Wrote 'Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth' (1979), 'Ages of Gaia' (1988), 'Homage to Gaia' (2000), 'The Revenge of Gaia' (2006) and 'The Vanishing Face of Gaia' (2009)

Why he might be annoying:

    After he detected CFCs in the air over Antarctica, he said the levels posed 'no conceivable hazard.'
    His Gaia hypothesis has been a lot more popular with environmentalists than scientists.
    He claims Earth acts like a living organism, about which fellow Gaia supporter Lynn Margulis commented, 'He says it's an okay metaphor because it's better than the old one. I think it's bad because you're encouraging irrationality.'
    He said, 'It's almost naive, scientifically speaking, to think we can give relatively accurate predictions for future climate. There are so many unknowns that it's wrong to do it.'
    He predicted that global warming would cause the Sahara to spread as far north as Berlin and Paris, that 80% of humanity will die by 2100 and 'the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.'
    He said democracy may need to be 'put on hold' to deal with global warming.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He could not afford to go to university immediately after secondary school, which he says kept him from becoming over-specialized.
    While researching how to protect soldiers from burns, he exposed his own skin to heat radiation, an experience he described as 'exquisitely painful.'
    He designed instruments for NASA's planetary probes.
    His discovery of CFCs over Antarctica prompted further research by Sherwood Roland and Mario Molina, who would win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for finding how CFCs cause depletion of the ozone layer.
    He supports nuclear power as the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels and said, 'I am a Green, and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 14 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 13 Votes: 76.92% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying