Editing James Lovelock (section)

=== Nuclear power ===
{{See also|Nuclear power and climate change}}
Lovelock became concerned about the threat of global warming from the [[greenhouse effect]]. In 2004 he broke with many fellow environmentalists by stating that "only [[nuclear power]] can now halt global warming".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lovelock |first=James |date=24 May 2004 |title=Nuclear power is the only green solution |url=http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article61727.ece |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060422055649/http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article61727.ece |archive-date=22 April 2006 |access-date=16 April 2006 |work=[[The Independent]]}}</ref>

In his view, nuclear energy is the only realistic alternative to [[fossil fuel]]s that can both fulfil the large scale energy needs of humankind while also reducing [[greenhouse emissions]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=28 August 2004 |title=Time for a rethink |url=http://www.jameslovelock.org/time-for-a-rethink/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823125159/http://www.jameslovelock.org/time-for-a-rethink/ |archive-date=23 August 2021 |access-date=30 July 2022 |work=[[The Independent]] |first=James |last=Lovelock}}</ref> He was an open member of [[Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy]] (EFN).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy |url=http://www.ecolo.org/base/baseen.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908172345/http://www.ecolo.org/base/baseen.htm |archive-date=8 September 2021 |access-date=23 August 2021 |website=ecolo.org}}</ref>

In 2005, against the backdrop of renewed [[Nuclear power in the United Kingdom|UK government interest in nuclear power]], Lovelock again publicly announced his [[pro-nuclear movement|support for nuclear energy]], stating, "I am a Green, and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kristof |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Kristof |name-list-style=vanc |date=9 April 2005 |title=Nukes Are Green |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/09/opinion/nukes-are-green.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325023234/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/09/opinion/nukes-are-green.html |archive-date=25 March 2020 |access-date=25 August 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Although those interventions in the public debate on nuclear power were in the 21st century, his views on it were longstanding. In his 1988 book ''The Ages of Gaia'', he stated: {{blockquote|I have never regarded [[nuclear radiation]] or nuclear power as anything other than a normal and inevitable part of the environment. Our [[prokaryotic]] forebears evolved on a planet-sized lump of [[fallout]] from a star-sized nuclear explosion, a [[supernova]] that synthesised the elements that go to make our planet and ourselves.{{sfn|Lovelock|1988|pp=174–175}}}}

In ''The Revenge of Gaia'' (2006), where he put forward the concept of {{anchor link|sustainable retreat}}, Lovelock wrote: {{blockquote|A television interviewer once asked me, "But what about [[nuclear waste]]? Will it not poison the whole biosphere and persist for millions of years?" I knew this to be a nightmare fantasy wholly without substance in the real world{{nbsp}}... One of the striking things about places heavily contaminated by radioactive nuclides is the richness of their wildlife. This is true of the land around Chernobyl, the bomb test sites of the Pacific, and areas near the United States' Savannah River nuclear weapons plant of the Second World War. Wild plants and animals do not perceive radiation as dangerous, and any slight reduction it may cause in their lifespans is far less a hazard than is the presence of people and their pets{{nbsp}}... I find it sad, but all too human, that there are vast bureaucracies concerned about nuclear waste, huge organisations devoted to decommissioning power stations, but nothing comparable to deal with that truly malign waste, carbon dioxide.{{sfn|Lovelock|2006|pp=116–118}}{{Long quote|date=November 2024}}}}

In 2019 Lovelock said he thought difficulties in getting nuclear power going again were due to propaganda, that "the coal and oil business fight like mad to tell bad stories about nuclear", and that "the greens played along with it. There's bound to have been some corruption there – I'm sure that various green movements were paid some sums on the side to help with propaganda".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wallace-Wells |first=David |name-list-style=vanc |date=2 October 2019 |title=James Lovelock: 'Any Further Interference Is Likely to Be Disastrous' |url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/james-lovelock-on-nuclear-power-and-if-ai-can-stop-warming.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025210710/http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/james-lovelock-on-nuclear-power-and-if-ai-can-stop-warming.html |archive-date=25 October 2019 |access-date=25 October 2019 |work=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]}}</ref>