Dr. Lovelock observes the destruction of 3.7 billion years of earth evolution and reaches for the alarm button. His hand hovering over the blinking red light, he hesitates, unable to decide.
Has earth doomed itself developing consciousness? Is humankind a natural disaster, a self-destruct device earth itself created, or an intermediary stage in the evolution towards true self-consciousness?
In the end it will all depend upon the ratio of our technological development to our moral development, and on this thought dr. lovelock decides: we have fallen behind in the latter.