"April 24, 2006 issue - James Lovelock has a modest explanation for his success. At the age of 86, the grand old seer of the environmentalist movement is high on the best-seller lists again with an account of the coming eco-apocalypse. So what's his secret? Says the pre-eminent scientist and author: "A cheerfully told story of doom will always prove pretty popular." "
...
"Forty years ago he developed the idea of the planet as Gaia, named for the Greek goddess of the Earth, with qualities comparable to a living organism's: for 3 billion years the world had managed to sustain life through an intricate system of self-regulation. Once viewed with suspicion, the argument is now mainstream."

If Mainstream is the wacky main stream- certainly as popular as visitation by ETs.

"Lovelock seems bent on challenging the fondest tenets of environmentalism. He dismisses renewable energy sources, for instance, and embraces nuclear power. It's a measure of his eminence that scientists aren't rejecting his pessimism outright."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12334552/site/newsweek/
[Linked from junkscience.com]

Right, it's his eminence which something deterring scientists. Anyhow he selling a happy doom and of course making plenty of money.