What’s wrong with James Lovelock? The first time the man, whose great mind created the Gaia hypothesis and has done so much to promote an environmental consciousness, stunned greenies, conservationists and the sustainability-minded was when he dissed alternative energy solutions and instead suggested that nuclear energy is our saviour. And he’s been on a crusade ever since, and that campaign is getting more ugly.
In his latest Guardian article (see link below) he claims that there “is no such thing as renewable energy; it belongs as an idea with perpetual motion and other delusions, but politicians and ideologues have become skilled at using enticing words to cover essentially rotten ideas”. And speaking at a screening in London of the climate change documentary The Age of Stupid last week, he rallied against the UK’s environment minister’s comment that “the government needs to be saying, ‘It is socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines in your area – like not wearing your seatbelt or driving past a zebra crossing‘.” Lovelock said he was afraid that any move to smooth the passage of wind farms with the introduction of new planning laws would remove the right of local people to object. “The right to have public hearings over energy sources is threatened by legislation soon due. Although well-intentioned it is an erosion of our freedom and draws near to what I see as fascism,” he said. That comment comes from a man who, born in 1940, was so convinced of the evils of fascism that he decided to fight the Nazis in Her Majesty’s army – after withdrawing his registration as a conscientious objector.
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