Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth

Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth

by James Lovelock (Author)

Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition (September 25, 2000)


James Lovelock's book "Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth" reads like a libertarian manifesto. In this classic work that continues to inspire its many readers, Lovelock puts forward his idea that life on earth functions as a single organism. Written for non-scientists, Gaia is a journey through time and space in search of evidence with which to support a new and radically different model of our planet. In contrast to conventional belief that living matter is passive in the face of threats to its existence, the book explores the hypothesis that the earth's living matter air, ocean, and land surfaces forms a complex system that has the capacity to keep the Earth a fit place for life. Since Gaia was first published, many of James Lovelock's predictions have come true and his theory has become a hotly argued topic in scientific circles. In a new Preface to this reissued title, he outlines his present state of the debate.

The 3 major principles he brings to light about Gaia are:

1. Gaia exhibits a tendency to keep conditions (e.g., temperature, air quality) constant for all terrestrial life.

2. Like other living systems, Gaia has vital organs at the core, and expandable or redundant ones on the periphery.

3. Under the worse conditions, Gaia responses similar to other cybernetic systems (i.e., where time constant and loop gain are important)

The material is far reaching in both its scope and in shaping our understanding of where we stand. Put in the context of Gaia, we have straddled ourselves to the largest of all known living and breathing creatures.
If you buy this book, use it as a point of departure--into biology, ecology, or ecopsychology, perhaps. Or into that state of humility that pauses to wonder what the world is thinking and feeling.

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