Gaia Hypothesis
The word Gaia is an umbrella term that is derived from the Greek word meaning Goddess of the Earth. It has now come to symbolize "Earth-Mother," or "Living Earth," hypothesizing that the Earth acts like a "superorganism," with all its biological and physical systems cooperating to keep it healthy.
The Gaia concept evolved from the work of a few noted scientists. Initially the hypothesis was formulated by the eighteenth-century Scottish geologist James Hutton, who was the first to use the term superorganism in reference to the Earth. He asserted that it was essential to view Earth's systems as affecting and affected by a single organism, and pointed out that physiology would be the proper science to study this codependence in the planet's systems. Hutton became known as the father of geology after he published his Theory of the Earth, which pointed to volcanism as being the primary force shaping the Earth.
In its modern form, the Gaia theory was put forward by James Lovelock whose book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth achieved considerable attention when it was published in 1979. Lovelock, an English chemist, suggested that the Earth's biosphere acts as a single living system called Gaia. If left alone, he wrote, it can regulate itself.
Lovelock drew on his background as a chemist to explain his theory. He asserted that the Earth provides a delicate balance between atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen, maintained by living organisms, and is responsible not only for creating a unique atmospheric chemical composition, but also for other environmental characteristics that make life possible. For example, he argued that it is no accident that the level of oxygen is kept remarkably constant in the atmosphere at 21%. Likewise, limestone has been stored deep under the oceans and has buried large amounts of carbon dioxide that would otherwise affect the Earth's heat balance. There has been a suggestion that microscopic marine algae are using the Earth's weather system to disperse themselves around the planet, by their creation of a gas, dimethyl sulphide, which ultimately creates particles on which water vapor can condense--a cloud.
Today Lovelock suggests that the biosphere has the ability to create the environment that most favors its own stability, and he warns that by tampering with the Earth's own environmental balancing mechanisms, we are placing ourselves and our planet at grave risk. He points to global warming and ozone depletion as indications of this risk.
Lovelock's arguments have been incorporated into opposing sides of the Earth conservation movement. Environmentalists insist that man's destruction is upsetting the Earth's ability to regulate itself, while industry representatives argue that the Earth can continue to survive based on its history of self-preservation through adaptation.
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