The Gaia Hypothesis A Living Planetary Organism
The notion of a living Earth is hardly a "new" perspective; ancienthuman history and archeological evidence suggests that most primitiveincorporated at least some general beliefs in a conscious "Mother Earth".paying homage to or praying to this entity is a theme central to many Both the ancient Greeks and early Christians believed in a consciousSt. Thomas Aquinas, to a lesser degree (Sagan). In fact, the etiology ofbased on the word Ge (or Gaia), the name of the Earth goddess of the(OceansOn-line). Likewise, interpreting weather phenomena as a purportedcommunication between man and his gods and the practice of sacrificialtriggered by weather or seasonal changes is evident, in myriad variations,early theistic philosophical perspectives. Even the more modern or scientific notion that the Earth is, in manyliving organism rather than an inanimate biosphere merely supportingbiological life is not entirely new. Renowned eighteenth century geologist
On the other hand, observational evidence does not contradict it,and in virtuallyevery respect, is consistent with the notion, so it is perfectlyconceivable that sufficientadditional evidence will eventually upgrade Gaia to a formal scientifichypothesis ofdistinct predictions capable of being tested in a definitive way (OceansOn-line). This mutual interdependence between MotherEarth andbiological terrestrial organisms (and microorganisms) is a departure fromtraditionalscientific thinking which regards the Earth as an inanimate host of themany forms ofbiological life that it supports (Charlton). The mere existence of oxygen requires someagent ormechanism to counteract the natural tendency of oxygen to react with carbonandnitrogen leaving only carbon dioxide and nitrous dioxide and water(Smolin). As part of his NASA-sponsored inquiry into the expected indices oflife, Lovejoyproposed that planets with inert atmospheres at equilibrium are dead, whileplanetssupporting long-term maintenance of complex homeostatic atmospheric andterrestrialchemical processes are living (Charlton). If you could look long enough, you would see the swirling of the great drifts of white cloud, covering and uncovering the half-hidden masses of land. Gaia is hardly as controversial a suggestion, in principle, as onemight assume. Thisposition iscountered by Gaia theorists whose experiments into computer modeling thenecessaryintegrated evolution of many interdependent life forms suggest that, to thecontrary, largebio-communities can indeed evolve in such an integrated fashion (Smolin). What struck Lovejoy, in particular, was the observation that Earthmaintains sucha perpetually stable atmosphere despite the influence of many substantialexternalvariables to the contrary. In a more general sense, critics also maintain that the delicatebalance ofterrestrial conditions necessary for (all other) life on Earth is merely afunction of theanthropic principle. For example, despite the fact that the Earthhas been exposed toapproximately 25 or 30% more solar radiation since biological life firstbegan, terrestrialtemperature has remained relatively constant during all that time(Charlton, Smolin). The photographs show the dry, pounded surface of the moon in the foreground, dry as an old bone. If you had been looking for a very long, geologic time, you could have seen the continents themselves in motion, drifting apart on their crustal plates, held afloat by the fire beneath. Still, nothing supports thelogical leapjustifying the belief that the many mechanisms responsible for terrestrialconditionsfavorable to life on Earth are necessarily the result of a "living" planet. Lovejoyalso points to the many complex interactions and varied biologicalmechanisms that linkcloud formation, atmospheric composition and the narrow range of oceansalinityrequired to support life on earth, all to particular forms of oceanic algae(Smolin). "The Gaia Hypothesis: James Lovejoy was a consultant hired by NASA in conjunction with itsVikingproject, designed to detect life if it existed anywhere on the planet Mars.
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Acceptance Essays
