In this review of James Lovelock's new book "The Vanishing Face of Gaia", Alexander Zaitchik explains the author's view that, while nothing can be done to stop climate change, there is reason to believe that some form of civilization will survive.
Lovelock has drawn the ire of many environmentalists for years for his promotion of nuclear energy. Now he claims that cap-and-trade measures are little more than a scam and that billions of people are going to perish in the climate catastrophe to come. There will however be survivors:
"Lovelock guesses the rump human race will cluster around a few temperate islands in the far northern hemisphere, including his native U.K. He believes that if emergency preparations are made in time-he compares the present moment to 1939-and if the worst-case scenarios of geopolitical conflict are avoided-namely resource scrambles leading to global thermonuclear war-then something resembling a modern and even urban lifestyle may await the survivors. This future civilization will synthesize food from CO2, nitrogen, water, and a few minerals. Simple amino acids and sugars, Lovelock cheerfully explains, can be used as feedstock for bulk animal and vegetable tissue created in chemical vats from biopsies.Yum!"
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