This isn’t exactly news. Lovelock hjas been of this disaster opinion for some years now.

His process to disaster is predicated on a closure of natural carbon capture and storage systems [sequestration] caused by warming.

The area of ocean rich in life and the area of tropical forest will decline under temperatures already in the system due to the warming values of the greenhouse gases already emitted.

Hansen, of the Goddard Institute of Space Science [a part of NASA], is of the view that 1.8dC is that tipping point Lovelock speaks of.

The current warming value of the 455ppmv of CO2 equivalent already in the atmosphere is about 370ppm due to the effects of particles in the atmosphere [global dimming].

As this clears as we decarbonize and pollute less the temperature will increase because less of the suns rays will be reflected by this blanket.

Lovelock may be correct and the actions we are about to take may be useless even if they are at the higher end of the recommended.

However what is the choice, destroy the systmes upon which we depend and cause the chaos he predicts will be the result of an inevitable catastrophe or act as best you can.

Lennon is yet to lead us down that path or have Garnaut independently proove that Tasmania,s forestry policies will lock up as much or more carbon than they emit.

Currently they appear carbon negative and this is unaffordable, unsustainable and unacceptable. Unfortunatley not enough of us believe that making Tasmania a contributor to Lovelock’s forecast.

At some time in our lives we find out that we are going to die one day.  If enough of us subsequently took the attitude of enjoying life by taking ethical shortcuts then we may find our opportunities for long-lived life severely limited.

Is this why we may be approaching a state where the biosphere can no longer support human life as it once did? What shall we do then? Won’t we be challenged like we never have been before to care for each other, and other living things? Though the world may fall apart around us?

I see no other way, if there is to be any chance of any joy in the act and moments of staying alive.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values—that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.
Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968, Baptist civil-rights leader in the US