"Trivialises": warmists toss Flannery overboard

Alarmist of the Year and warmist guru Tim Flannery on the ABC's Science Show on January 1:

I think that within this century the concept of the strong Gaia will actually become physically manifest. I do think that the Gaia of the Ancient Greeks, where they believed the earth was effectively one whole and perfect living creature, that doesn't exist yet, but it will exist in future…

With our technology now, particularly computer based surveillance systems in agriculture and in the oceans and whatever else, we're developing a sort of nervous system that allows us to convey that message to the planet. We'll never be able to control the earth, there's no doubt about it. We can't control its systems. But we can nudge them and we can foresee danger. Once that occurs, then the Gaia of the Ancient Greeks really will exist. This planet, this Gaia, will have acquired a brain and a nervous system. That will make it act as a living animal, as a living organism, at some sort of level.

Warmist scientists Roger M. Gifford, Will Steffen and John Finnigan ditch Flannery and try to repair the damage:

Tim Flannery's recent interview with Robyn Williams on The Science Show has generated some interesting debate (and a little confusion) about the Gaia hypothesis (see editorials in The Daily Telegraph, and The Australian).

For most scientists working in the relatively new area of Earth System Science, talk of the earth "growing a brain" trivialises the growing body of knowledge about the functioning of the whole-earth system.

(Thanks to reader Steve.)