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We present a giant of the global environmental movement, British scientist James Lovelock. Lovelock is well known for his scientific work detecting CFC’s and linking these gasses to processes contributing to the ozone hole. This work set in motion global agreements to restrict ozone-depleting gasses and won his group the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Today, however, Lovelock is one of the few Nobel prize winners who can be described as better known for a different idea – not one that won a Nobel prize. In Lovelock’s case, that idea is “the Gaia Hypothesis”. Conceiving of the entire planet as a enormous superorganism, Lovelock gave birth to a new way of thinking about life on earth. In today’s lecture delivered at the Glenn Gould Studios in Toronto, Lovelock presents Gaia’s struggle for survival in a lecture based on his book, “The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning”. Thanks to Danny Leskiw for recording this lecture.

 

You can see the complete episode here: TGM #158: James Lovelock (October 9, 2009)