Enemies of the Planet: People and Democracy

This is just too, too perfect. This guy must be Tom Friedman's favorite "scientist". I couldn't resist the urge to include some parenthetical editorial comments.

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James Lovelock: Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change

Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades. This is the stark conclusion of James Lovelock, the globally respected (!?!) environmental thinker and independent scientist who developed the Gaia theory (Ah yes, the scientifically rigorous, intensely rational Gaia theory).
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"I don't think we're yet evolved to the point where we're clever enough to handle [as] complex a situation as climate change," said Lovelock (Note that, as is always the case with people who advocate authoritarianism, the speaker assumes that he is somehow immune from this deficiency of cleverness) in his first in-depth interview since the theft of the UEA emails last November. "The inertia of humans is so huge that you can't really do anything meaningful."

One of the main obstructions to meaningful action is "modern democracy", he added. "Even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while." (Oh, but just for a while. That's a foolproof plan if I've ever heard one. What could go wrong?)