British environmental scientist James Lovelock, who devoted his life to the global green movement, has died on his 103rd birthday, his family has said.
His 1960s Gaia theory Earth, from rocks to air, was one huge interconnected and self-regulating system formed the basis of much of climate science, the BBC reports.
He warned climate change could be a tipping point for the planet, but subsequently changed his position: meanwhile his support for nuclear energy and for fracking attracted criticism from other environmentalists. His Gaia hypothesis posits that life on Earth is a self-regulating community of organisms interacting with each other and their surroundings. He said two years ago that the biosphere was in the last 1% of its life.
Lovelock was also amongst the first of scientists to reveal that chemicals were destroying the ozone layer.
He later became an independent scientist and was driven to reveal the huge threat posed to life by a warming world.
“We’re playing a very dangerous game,” Lovelock told BBC News in 2020.
“It’s direct interference with one of the major regulating mechanisms of Gaia.”
In 2011, he said: “My main reason for not relaxing into contented retirement is that, like most of you I am deeply concerned about the probability of massively harmful climate change and the need to do something about it now.”
And two years ago, he said the biosphere – all systems of life on Earth – was on its last 1% of life.
His family said: “Our beloved James Lovelock died yesterday in his home surrounded by his family on his 103rd birthday.
“To the world he was best known as a scientific pioneer, climate prophet and conceiver of the Gaia theory.
“To us, he was a loving husband and wonderful father with a boundless sense of curiosity, a mischievous sense of humour and a passion for nature.”
Image: Par Original téléversé par Bruno Comby sur Wikipédia anglais. — Transféré de en.wikipedia à Commons., CC BY-SA 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/…
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