What Lovelock is suggesting that if Musk wants a challenge, he should try to fix this planet. Instead of seeking a challenge in brand new, clean space for him and a few extremely lucky individuals, how about saving the planet for seven billion of them?

I think Lovelock is missing that Musk is also doing some of that -- he thinks that electricity storage is the key. I suspect Lovelock knows that -- the "Mars" and "Musk" aspects are a tiny fragment of the interview, and perhaps if he'd elaborated he's have talked more about that. Lovelock is right that there's much more to do, though.

Musk is perhaps understandably self-centered in that he wants his adventure to include a clean-sheet planet, an adventure open to humans for most of history until the last century or so. There are lots of adventures here, but they're messier and harder, and it's not as if Musk is opting completely out of them. So I think Lovelock is partly on the mark and partly off it, and I think it's a mistake for the headline to focus on that one tiny part of the interview.

Not speaking on behalf of rich ppl, just want to say imo there's a lot more than what can be easily acquired through money. A lot of things are so disgustingly hard to achieve no matter how rich you are and the kind of sensation they provide can never be purchased.

"I had never even heard of a “James Lovelock” before now, and after skimming the comments here, my desire to know about him went from zero to negative."

Although I question the conclusions, I feel that having read his original work "The Gaia Hypothesis"[1] is required to be broadly literate in our age.

It's a short book.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis

Ah I know of the Gaia Hypothesis, but did not remember Lovelock.