The mood of this chapter is entirely James Lovelock's fault. In his latest book, The Revenge of Gaia, Lovelock – apparently a kind, decent, serious, wholly pacific scientist – transports his readers into the midst of a front line of terrifying intensity (2006). Yet, he is not talking about one of those antiquated wars that so many humans wage against one another, but of another war, the one that humans, as a whole, wage, without any explicit declaration, against Gaia.