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Gaia theorist says we’re all doomed

So, James Lovelock -- he of the famous "Gaia Hypothesis" -- has a rather, uh, grim piece in the Independent today, mainly as advance hype for his new book The Revenge of Gaia.

(The paper also has a follow-up piece that does little but point out the existence of the original piece. Oh, and another follow-up piece, doing the same. And, um, another follow-up piece, in case you missed the first three.)

I'm not really clear on what Lovelock thinks he's trying to accomplish. Does he think people aren't more concerned about global warming because environmentalists haven't yelled loud enough? Haven't been apocalyptic enough? Haven't painted a vivid enough picture of the end of civilization? Does he think becoming even more melodramatic -- "before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic" -- is going to snap people awake?

I'm mystified by this attitude, which seems to be widely shared. Just shouting, louder and louder and louder, isn't going to do anything. Lovelock's latest piece is not going to reach anybody who's not already sympathetic. Public opinion polls show that the majority of people believe in global warming and believe it's human-caused and believe it's a threat. What are they supposed to do? Panic? They need to see pathways, from where we're standing now to a place where it will be OK. Lovelock offers no such pathways.

This kind of street-corner "the end is nigh" stuff has, in my humble opinion, largely exhausted its usefulness.

Here are some of the high low points:

And unfashionable.

Getting cancer from chemicals is so last month. Get cancer from being green instead!

Your hybrid, though reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, could be the source of a cancer-causing electromagnetic field! Your tofu, presumably a substitute for overconsumption of meat, could give you thyroid cancer -- deforestation aside! Reading Grist, your indispensable source of environmental enlightenment, could give you cancer! My, you can't take a breath these days without finding out that breathing gives you cancer!

What's a paranoid enviro to do?

The answer to this and many, many, many other questions: Wear silver underwear!

<Segue smoothly into long, profound, philosophical commentary on the detrimental effects of paranoia. End with Hallmark-worthy reflection on living life to the fullest. Accept imminent comments on life-changing nature of post with enviable humility.>

Why greens should join forces with gardeners to face down the bull dozers in LA.

Even though I abandoned Brooklyn for the Appalachians, I'm no sentimental pastoralist. I'm a long-term disciple of the great urban theorist (and champion of cities) Jane Jacobs. Human history since the dawn of agriculture 10,000 years ago has been a history of cities. Cities are the future; as David Owen's superb article "Green Manhattan" (PDF) shows, they may be our only hope. The trick is to create agricultural systems within and just outside of cities, minimizing the ruinous effects of long-haul freight transit, slashing the fossil-fuel inputs embedded in food production, maximizing availability of fresh delicious food, and boosting local and even neighborhood economies.

Farmers' markets have been the most visible effort at creating sustainable urban food networks. Equally if not more important, although virtually invisible to well-heeled urban foodies who laudably support farmers' markets, inner-city gardening projects represent a vanguard in the effort to overthrow industrial food and reintroduce sustainably grown, delicious food to populations that were knocked off the land a generation or two ago.

There's been a lot of talk around here about whether or not humanity's future requires messing up Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s ocean view from "the Vineyard." (I say, the hell with him. Mess it up!) This story may be more important, though: An LA developer wants to bulldoze a 14-acre community garden, with 360 family plots, right in the middle of an industrial zone in South Central. The city should be paying these people to do what they're doing, for all the environmental and social benefits they're creating. At the very least, the city should buy the land back from the developer and make the garden permanent.

LA greens, and I know you're out there, get out and man the barricades with those brave gardeners.

Google.org

Has anyone else seen or heard much about google.org? It sounds pretty amazing.

Google.org includes the work of the Google Foundation, some of Google's own projects using Google talent, technology and other resources, as well as partnerships and contributions to for-profit and non-profit entities. While we continue to define the goals, priorities and approach for Google.org, we will focus on several areas including global poverty, energy and the environment.

Say founders Sergey Brin & Larry Page:

We hope that someday this institution will eclipse Google itself in overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world's problems.

Something to keep our eyes on.

Iran and oil

So, let's return to a familiar subject: The use of oil as a political tool in international relations.

Iran's heading toward nukes. The U.S. wants to prevent it. So the U.S. is threatening economic sanctions -- specifically, threatening to restrict Iran's major export, oil.

But, ahem, don't we need that oil? Points out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "You need us more than we need you. All of you today need the Iranian nation."

Kevin Drum asks, and Stuart Staniford answers, the obvious question: Could cutting off, or even slowing down, Iranian oil exports really do that much damage to us, or to the world economy?

The short answer is: Yes.

So the next time somebody's calculating the economic cost of Kyoto, or a carbon tax, or emissions caps, I hope that in the "continuing the status quo" column they don't forget to include, "inability to prevent a large Middle Eastern country headed by maniacs from acquiring nuclear weapons." How much does that run these days?

Coming this March

Fans of the Meatrix will be pleased to learn that the sequel will be released this March. Check out the sneak preview.

And for those of you who're interested in the musical preferences and the like of Moopheus, visit his MySpace page. (And for those of you into the MySpace thang, add Grist to your friends list!)

How much can weary bleeding-hearts give?

This analysis of a Red Cross ad brings up some interesting points about altruism, competition, and people's increasingly limited time and focus.

That's all.

Kotkin: Still mildly annoying

Since most of you aren't subscribed to the Wall Street Journal, you won't have the pleasure of reading Joel Kotkin saying the same things he always says, again.

For the record, he's still pretending that the American preference for suburbs arises ex nihilo, reflecting only the original and uninfluenced desires of American families and not, say, half a century of infrastructure decisions, land-use policies, energy subsidies, anemic public transportation, corporate influence, and cheap foreign labor.

He's also still pretending that the choice is between unchecked suburban sprawl and "underused train systems, downtown condominiums, hotels, convention centers, sports stadia and 'star-chitect'-designed art museums, often at the expense of smaller business, single-family neighborhoods and local shopping areas." Way to use your imagination, Joel!

Beaver Theodosakis, founder of prAna, answers questionsBeaver Theodosakis, founder of prAna, answers

Beaver Theodosakis. What work do you do? I’m founder and president of prAna. What does your business do? prAna’s core business is men’s and women’s lifestyle apparel and accessories. The brand — grown from deep roots in rock climbing and yoga — has always strived for positive change and is grounded in the ideas of […]

How the Olympics are becoming a sustainable business

This month, as the Olympic flame makes its torch-uous journey to Turin, Italy, most people’s eyes are fixed on the upcoming games. But our eyes are focused a little farther down the track. In our role as sustainability consultants, we’ve joined the field of those helping the London 2012 Olympics committee work out how to […]