Particularly because i have been a vocal critic of the gaia hypothesis, it is important to make clear that i substantially agree with many of its central themes. James lovelock and the gaia hypothesis new scientist. Beyond these generally accepted facts, the gaia hypothesis advances three central propositions. In the past year the gaia team has developed an endtoend knowledge extraction, grounding, inference, clustering and hypothesis genera. Gaia hypothesis the gaia hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the earth atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on earth in a preferred homeostasis. The gaia hypothesis, also known as gaia theory or gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings.
The gaia hypothesis, also known as gaia theory or gaia principle, named after earth goddess gaia, indicates that living organisms interact with their nonliving inorganic surroundings on earth to selfregulate the earth environment, a complex system that contributes to maintaining the conditions for life on the planet. The gaia hypothesis by michael ruse gets to the heart of the question. This 30 minute video was produced by the lewis research center as part of their nasa at work series. Fact, theory, and wishful thinking 393 clarify and focus the gaia debate, which seemed to be at risk of becoming a shouting match between disciples and detractors. I pointed out that the singular term, the gaia hypothesis, was being.
Gaia website for the academic study of religion and. The uncertainties surrounding global climate change provide ample evidence, if any were necessary, of the need for a wholesystem view of the earth. Feb 12, 2010 in ancient greek mythology, gaia is the earthmother goddess, the deity that gives life to all others. James lovelock, gaia theory, and the rejection of factvalue dualism article pdf available december 2011 with 1,424 reads how we measure reads. Organisms can greatly affect their environments, and the feedback coupling between organisms and their environments can shape the evolution of both. Redfield in the mid1950s, it was english scientist and inventor james lovelock that gave. A group of geophysicists and others came together to discuss the hypothesis, an event in itself that helped fuel its acceptance. The third is to outline new directions for gaia theory, in the hope that it can contribute to the further development of earth system science. The gaia hypothesis or popularly known as gaia theory goes beyond the individual organisms living on earth, it encompasses all the living and nonliving components of earths biosphere. Historic and contemporary evidence and arguments for this hypothesis will be presented. Gaia appears to be a selfregulating system, continually adjusting its chemical, physical, and biological processes in order to support life in its continuing evolution. After its publication in james lovelocks book gaia. Specifically, the gaia hypothesis said that the temperature.
Homeric hymn calls gaia mother of all, eldest of all beings, while the theogony of eighthcentury b. During the 1960s, british scientist james lovelock first formulated the gaia hypothesis, the. Gaia is theorized to be a living entity that is greater than the sum of all the living and nonliving aspects of the earth. The gaia hypothesis has both scientific and philosophical components. The hypothesis was developed in the 1970s by james lovelock with lynn margulis. The idea that life on earth regulates the physical and. Gaia has been a fruitful hypothesis generator, and has prompted many intriguing conjectures about how biological. For more than a century students of the evolution of the living and nonliving parts of the earth have known that life influences the physical and chemical characteristic of the planet. In fact, wider research proved the original hypothesis wrong, in the sense that it is not life alone but the whole earth system that does the regulating. In 1965 english scientist james lovelock had a flash of insight. The gaia pronounced gayah hypothesis is the idea that earth is a living organism and can regulate its own environment. The gaia hypothesis criticism on the hypothesis the hypothesis would be unscientific there would be no way for evolution by natural selection to lead to altruism on a global scale evidence for the hypothesis the existence of oxygen the existence of carbon dioxide.
Greek poet hesiod describes the simultaneous birth of eros. The gaia hypothesis is for those who like to walk or simply stand and stare, to wonder about the earth and the life it bears, and to speculate about the consequences of our own presence here. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Summarize the gaia hypothesis in its strong and weak. A number of distinct hypotheses have been proposed, spanning a range from the self. Gaia hypothesis simple english wikipedia, the free. Gaia international society for the study of religion. This idea argues that earth is able to maintain conditions that are favorable for life to survive on it, and that it is the living things on earth that give the planet this ability. It postulates that all living things have a regulatory effect on the earth. The gaia hypothesis does not take important past events into account, including two snowball earth events, or mass extinctions caused by outside factors, specifically meteor impacts on the earth. Originally proposed by james lovelock as the earth feedback. The hypothesis was further developed by lynn margulis, a microbiologist at the university of massachusetts, in the 1970s. Gaia gaia earth is the name of a greek goddess also called ge, from whose name words like geology and geography are derived. Overall, the gaia theory is a compelling new way of understanding life on our planet.
Ee llc helps companies, organizations and individuals achieve their sustainability goals and engage their innate human creativity to envision and implement sustainable ways of working and living. The gaia hypothesis central theme is that biological processes homeostatically maintain, on a planetary scale, geochemical and climatic conditions favorable for life. In response, lovelock contended that, in no way is this gaia theory. Coevolutionary gaia asserts that the biota influence their abiotic environment, and that the environment in turn influences the evolution of the biota by darwinian. To license this film and get a higher quality version for broadcastfilm purposes, contact av geeks llc. Professor lynn margulis of boston university speaks before an audience of nasa employees in 1984 to explain the gaia hypothesis. Gaia hypothesis as combining elem ents of what i have termed homeostatic gaia i. The gaia theory offers insights into climate change, energy, health, agriculture, and other issues of great, if not urgent, importance. Though, as pak notes, the gaia hypothesis did not begin to shape terraforming sf until the 1970s, the idea that humans are a part of an interdependent, living system pervades nearly all of the terraforming narrative tradition. Gaia theory the gaia hypothesis, when we introduced it in the 1970s supposed that the atmosphere, the oceans, the climate, and the crust of the earth are regulated at a state comfortable for life because of the behavior of living organisms. It argues that we are far more than just the third rock from the sun, situated precariously between freezing and. Indeed, evolution favours those species that are able to keep the 286 environment under specific conditions that are assumed. For this whole is not human, as is readily seen in the gaia hypothesis lovelock 1979 second, the only people who would be capable of defining these connections and revealing the infinitely complex architecture of this totality, would be specialists whose knowledge and breadth of.
I pointed out that the singular term, the gaia hypothesis, was being applied to many different propositions, ranging from. This paper offers an alternative explanation that, early after life began it acquired control of the planetary environment and that this homeostasis by and for the biosphere has persisted ever since. The gaia hypothesis states that the temperature and composition of the earths atmosphere are actively regulated by the sum of life on the planet sagan and margulis, 1983. Recognition of the many gaia hypotheses evolved from a symposium on the gaia hypothesis held in 1988. The gaia hypothesis proposes that life, through its interactions with the earths crust, oceans, and atmosphere, produced a stabilising effect which has enabled it to survive under conditions which. Underlying many of the issues pak examines in this study is the influence of the gaia hypothesis. A hypothesis stating that earths biota constitute a single interconnected system that affects or determines the physical and chemical conditions within the biosphere, including such conditions as global temperatures, the composition of the atmosphere, and the salinity of seawater. The scientifically accepted form of the hypothesis.
It is an alternative to that pessimistic view which sees nature as a primitive force to be subdued and conquered. Gaia hypothesis 1 gaia hypothesis the study of planetary habitability is partly based upon extrapolation from knowledge of the earths conditions, as the earth is the only planet currently known to harbour life. In the 1960s, dr james lovelock, a british scientist and inventor, first suggested the gaia hypothesis, which proposed that the earth can be viewed as a single living functioning system. Oct 25, 2015 this system as a whole called gaia seeks a physical and chemical environment optimal for contemporary life. The two main authors who have attempted structured and systematic assessments of the gaia hypothesis are kirchner 1989kirchner, 1991kirchner, 2002 kirchner, 2003, and kleidon 2002. Gaia a multimedia multilingual knowledge extraction and hypothesis generation system tongtao zhang 1, ananya subburathinam, ge shi, lifu huang, di lu 1, xiaoman pan, manling li 1, boliang zhang, qingyun wang 1, spencer whitehead, heng ji 1 rensselaer polytechnic institute. The gaia hypothesis a goddess reborn anyone who has studied the global green movement has no doubt heard of gaia. The gaia hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the earth atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on earth in a preferred homeostasis. Gaia hypothesis, model of the earth in which its living and nonliving parts are viewed as a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism. Arguably the most visible and controversial attempt to understand earth as a system has been lovelocks gaia theory. Gaia a multimedia multilingual knowledge extraction.
While this concept has its origins in the work of american oceanographer alfred c. This system as a whole called gaia seeks a physical and chemical environment optimal for contemporary life. Does the gaia hypothesis imply that the biosphere is a single living organism. Gaia hypothesis simple english wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The gaia hypothesis and earth system science the following is an excerpt from scientists on gaia by stephen schneider and penelope boston mit press. The gaia hypothesis is mainly based on this 285 interaction 18, 19. Gaia hypothesis definition of gaia hypothesis by medical. The gaia hypothesis represents one of the turning points in the evolution of modern environmental thinking.