But let us return to James Lovelock for a moment; early on in The Vanishing Face of Gaia he does recognize his pessimism and the fact that the the grim message in his last book,
The greatest discovery in the history of science was rational scientific methodology itself, the second greatest was the discovery of evolution. The third greatest discovery in the history of science will eventually be widely recognized as; evolution is progressive. It has an overall directionality in spite of its many meanderings, retrogressions, dead ends and extinctions.
he does recognize his pessimism and the fact that the the grim message in his last book,