“The Revenge of Gaia” by James Lovelock.
 (Allen Lane, £11)   

Lovelock has come in for a lot of criticism from the Green movement for his latest book – but this is because people don’t like his conclusions, not because his premise is flawed.

He is clearly at the pessimistic end of scientists studying climate change and makes a strong case that we have already gone too far to avoid catastrophic changes.

From this two headline conclusions have been picked on for attack by Greens – the first is his seemingly bizarre dislike of wind energy. This is at least in part based on aesthetics. Behind this though, is a belief that we simply cannot get enough wind power on stream fast enough to keep the lights burning. This relates to his other conclusion that we must immediately invest massively in new nuclear build. He is quite clear that this is only because he can see no other lifeboat to keep civilization going for another 40 years while we sort out the mess in a more sustainable way. If you follow his argument that we are on the brink (within 7 years) of total disaster, then there is a logic to his position – if he is right then there simply is no other way to avoid a descent into literal dark ages.

The alternative approach, which he does not spot, would be to create a managed descent pathway – and there may still be time to achieve this.
The basic restatement of the Gaia principle and the science behind where we find ourselves today is absolutely sound. Greens have rounded on the man because they do not like the stark reality of his conclusions. We can do better than that, but you need to read the book to have a basis to come to a better solution that which Prof.Lovelock reaches.

Syriana: Dir Stephen Gaghan. Star: George Clooney. 2005

Occasionally Hollywood attempts to do justice to a complex story with a political edge. In Syriana it  succeeds in pulling it off. Helped by the presence of George Cloney, who brings some vision and focus to what could have been a rambling overblown turkey, the film deals with the geo-politics of oil.

At no point (until the very end) does it patronise its audience, but assumes that the viewer is capable of following five interweaving stories – it demands that you pay attention to the narratives to follow what is going on, but that attention is rewarded with a picture of the complexity of the power games that literally oil the wheels of our society – and a messy dirty business it is.

The film includes one of the most succinct expositions of peak oil yet seen in any medium, but is more focused on exposing the corruption and exploitation inherent in business of grabbing the lion’s share of a finite natural resource.

One final word of caution – if you do go to see it then get up and leave when you think that the story has reached a natural end, this will spare you the slightly mawkish, obviously tagged-on, ‘happy’ ending which Hollywood seems to feel is needed to insult the audience.