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James Lovelock remembered by John Gray | James Lovelock | The Guardian; archive.is
The experimental station was so called because Jim made most of his income throughout his life as an inventor. He was among the last in that tradition of Darwin and others, an independent scientist. He didn’t need a big organisation. He was part of that era where someone would call him up and say: “Look here, Lovelock, why don’t you try working on this for a while?”
Jim’s belief was that science should be used to achieve what he called a “sustainable retreat” from the Earth. That technology had to be used to diminish the human imprint on the planet, to allow the biosphere to be partially restored and rewilded.
Jim attributed his great old age to long daily walks – he lived to 103 and right up to the end his mind was very vivid. I joined him sometimes wandering through his grounds, where he’d let Gaia have its will.
He certainly helped to shape the understanding in my book Straw Dogs that humans aren’t the centre even of life on Earth, let alone of the universe.