James Lovelock, the 90-year old originator of the Gaia hypothesis in the 1960s, has penned a book called “The Vanishing Face of Gaia“. The book starkly states that there are too many people on the planet, and too much carbon dioxide in the air, for the Earth to sustain its habitability. He sees the need to move populations to the far North and South, and predicts that many of us will not survive the heating of our planet.
Lovelock’s theory of Earth as a self-regulating organism has gained traction and spawned Earth System Science. His writings have often harped on cautionary tales of the fragile balance of our life sustaining systems. His final grim hypothesis puts little faith in our adaptability, but perhaps it will effectively spur some deeper and more aggressive changes.
