Controversial scientist predicts planetary wipeout

Professor James Lovelock, who pioneered the idea of the Earth as a living organism, said as the planet heats up humans will find it increasingly hard to survive.

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He warned that as conditions worsen, the global population which is currently around 6.5 billion, may sink as low as 500 million.

Prof Lovelock also claims that any attempts to tackle climate change will not be able to solve the problem, merely buy us time.

Given the dire situation we face, he urged people to drop the phrase "global warming," which has cosy connotations, and instead start to think of it as "global heating."

Prof Lovelock, is an independent scientist who first proposed the Gaia Theory, which argues that the Earth, like a body, is a complex and intricately balanced system which all works together to allow life to continue as we know it.

However he fears that as carbon dioxide emissions from man and the planet itself soar, the Earth will heat up causing water shortages, destroying life in much of the planet's oceans and making it impossible for plants to grow.

Prof Lovelock, who last night gave the 5th John Collier Lecture to the Institution of Chemical Engineers in London, said: "There is very good evidence of what happened 55 million years ago when as much carbon dioxide was put into the atmosphere by geology as is being done by us now.

"Temperatures zoomed up by 8 degrees and stayed there for 200,000 years then came back to normal."

He fears something similar may happen again, and warned: "if it does it is going to make this an exceedingly difficult century."

However Prof Lovelock said mankind has managed to survive previous climatic disasters of the past.

"There have been at least seven of these major climate changes before and we have to adapt," he said.

"It is going to be tough and there will be some evolution of humans during it.

"The survivors will be those humans that can make their way to refuges or Arctic places and survive there.

"I think an awful lot of people will die but I don't see the human species dying out.

"I would think a hot earth could not support much over 500 million."

He warned there are no simple solutions to global heating and there is nothing we can do now to "save the earth."

"People will try to do things but the way to really look at them is they are a bit like when your kidneys fail you can on dialysis - and who would refuse dialysis if death is the alternative?" he said.

"But we have to remember that all they are doing is buying us time. The problems will go on.

"Trying to take the job on of regulating the earth is about as crazy as you can get.

"It is something quiet beyond humans at this stage in their evolution."

Despite this people should do what they can to reduce their impact on the planet.

"There is no point driving around in a Chelsea tractor when you can drive a small car but it does not escape the fact that changes are underway," he warned.

Prof Lovelock's dire forecast for the future of the human race is far more pessimistic than the Government's own assessment of global warming.

Tony Blair told European leaders at a summit in Finland last month that it was not too late to reverse the effects global warming.

In an open letter to delegates he said there was a window of "10-15 years to take the steps we need to avoid crossing catastrophic tipping points."

This echoes the findings of Sir Nicholas Stern in his influential report on climate change.

In it he says there is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change if countries co-operate internationally.