In the media

Enjoy life while you can - Decca Aitkenhead interviews JL for The Guardian, Saturday 1 March 2008. "Climate science maverick James Lovelock believes catastrophe is inevitable, carbon offsetting is a joke and ethical living a scam. So what would he do? ..."

Ocean pipes could help the Earth to cure itself - letter to Nature from James Lovelock and Chris Rapley, 26 September 2007. "We propose a way to stimulate the Earth's capacity to cure itself, as an emergency treatment for the pathology of global warming ... The oceans, which cover more than 70% of the Earth's surface, are a promising place to seek a regulating influence. One approach would be to use free-floating or tethered vertical pipes to increase the mixing of nutrient-rich waters below the thermocline with the relatively barren waters at the ocean surface ...Such an approach may fail, perhaps on engineering or economic grounds. And the impact on ocean acidification will need to be taken into account ... But the stakes are so high that we put forward the general concept of using the Earth system's own energy for amelioration. The removal of 500 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide from the air by human endeavour is beyond our current technological capability. If we can't 'heal the planet' directly, we may be able to help the planet heal itself."

Mixing the oceans proposed to reduce global warming - news story in Nature by Quirin Schiermeier, 26 September 2007. "Could mighty pumps be installed in the ocean to mix up the waters and cool the planet? In a letter to the editor published in Nature this week, James Lovelock and Chris Rapley suggest that this deus ex machina could be an "emergency treatment for the pathology of global warming". Large vertical pipes could, they say, be used to mix nutrient-rich waters from hundreds of metres down with the more barren waters at the surface. This could cause algal blooms at the surface, which would consume carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis. When the algae die, some of this carbon could sink into deep waters. The algae may also produce chemicals that spur cloud formation, further cooling the planet."

Lovelock urges ocean climate fix - article on BBC website by Richard Black, Environment Correspondent. "Two of Britain's leading environmental thinkers say it is time to develop a quick technical fix for climate change. Writing in the journal Nature, Science Museum head Chris Rapley and Gaia theorist James Lovelock suggest looking at boosting ocean take-up of CO2. Their idea, already being investigated by a US firm, involves huge flotillas of vertical pipes in the tropical seas." 26 September 2007.