At first his nihilism bothered me a great deal as well but doesn’t now for some reason.

And agreed that speed and extent have often been underestimated (e.g. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/08/arctic-ice-ocean), but climate scientists are still the best source for climate science, not maverick scientists with books to sell.

The underestimates by the scientific community simply increase the urgency with which we must act to reduce and stop carbon pollution.

I’ve read / watched a number of Lovelock’s interviews recently and I think his cheerful nihilism damages the cause. This one was more of the same. I guess I’ve made clear that I’m not a fan.

Good catch on the interglacial sea level — 6+ meters is correct…will check the transcripts

Nobody who is reasonably informed is “thinking blindly”. Reduction of carbon pollution is by far the most important issue today – we must mitigate climate change and limit the damage as much as possible.

I think Lovelock’s spiel about ‘Gaia’ and his cheerful predictions of billions dying are dangerous nonsense that is being eagerly embraced by the deniers and delayers. Why should they act when most of us are doomed anyway?

> My hope is that we will stay civilised and those in the North will give refuge to the unimaginably large numbers of climate refugees.

This is a clear demonstration of ignorance and naiveté at work. Look at the turmoil created by New Orleans. There’s no way millions of refugees can be accommodated.

Hopefully very few people will pay attention to Lovelock and instead look to professional climate scientists for their climate science and the actions we need to take to avert catastrophic climate change.

P.S. I’ve no idea where he got his sea level of +120m. for the last interglacial – it was more like +6m.