James Lovelock, the renowned scientist who first introduced us to Gaia, the concept of the earth as a self-regulating system, has now written, The revenge of Gaia, in which he describes how, after millennia of humankind exploiting the earth without counting the cost, the earth is fighting back. It makes extremely uncomfortable reading. For those of us who have always strongly, instinctively and rationally felt that on no account must we ever go down the nuclear route to meet our energy needs, it is a particularly difficult read. He says that, to survive, we have no choice.
Lovelock writes passionately and well and his language is rich in metaphor, something which, he acknowledges, many scientists find irritating. Gaia behaves like the other mythic goddesses, Khali and Nemesis; she acts as a mother who is nurturing but ruthlessly cruel towards transgressors, even when they are her progeny. Her primary obligation is to the living earth, humankind comes second. She is struggling to keep the earth cool for all her diverse forms of life against the inexorable rise in …