Profile: James Lovelock

James Ephraim Lovelock CH CBE FRS (26 July 1919 – 26 July 2022) was an English independent scientist, environmentalist and futurist. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system.^[3]

He invented the electron capture detector and, using it, became the first to detect the widespread presence of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. While designing scientific instruments for NASA, he developed the Gaia hypothesis.

In the 2000s, he proposed a method of climate engineering to restore carbon dioxide–consuming algae. He was an outspoken member of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy,^[4] asserting that fossil fuel interests have been behind opposition to nuclear energy, citing the effects of carbon dioxide as being harmful to the environment, and warning of global warming due to the greenhouse effect. He wrote several environmental science books based upon the Gaia hypothesis from the late 1970s.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock

• Lovelock J, Epton S (6 February 1975). “The Quest for Gaia”. New Scientist. 65 (935): 304.
• Lovelock J (1979). Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-217665-3.
• Lovelock JE, Allaby M (1983). The Great Extinction. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. ISBN978-0-385-18011-5.
• Lovelock J, Allaby M (1984). The Greening of Mars. New York: Warner Books (published 1985). ISBN978-0-446-32967-5.
• Lovelock J (1988). The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth. New York: Norton. ISBN978-0-393-02583-5. — (1991).
• Lovelock J (2000) Gaia: The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-521674-5.

Selected Bibliography

An Article on the ABC website on the occasion of James Lovelock’s death at the age of 103,

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-08-06/james-lovelock-legacy-gaia-climate-science-lynn-margulis/101297574