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Gaia

            In 1965 James Lovelock was working on a project for NASA when he came upon a revelation, while doing research looking for evidence of life on Mars he came across the idea that maybe the Earth is itself on giant super-organism. The idea that billions of organisms on the planet were circulating and controlling the atmosphere, temperature and course of the Earth. "It was life processes, the cumulative actions of countless organisms, that were controlling the atmosphere. And viewed from outer space, the mass effect of these processes was that the Earth itself appeared as a living entity - especially in comparison with its dead neighbors. Lovelock had a sudden realization that the Earth could best be described as a kind of super-organism:".
             While trying to find out if there could be life on Mars Lovelock first started thinking about what establishes life on Earth, and how you can find it. He came across the idea that just as we would leave a certain chemical signature in the atmosphere from breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide if there was life on Mars there would be a certain pattern in the atmosphere there. With his partner Dian Hitchcock he studied the chemical makeup of Mars and discovered that the atmosphere there was about 95% carbon dioxide and therefore was chemically dead, there was no chance of any further reactions to take place there. "The Earth was 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and a relatively large amount of methane. Mars was chemically dead; all the reactions that were going to take place had already done so. The Earth, however, was far from chemical equilibrium. For example, methane and oxygen will react with each other very easily, and yet they are both present in the atmosphere. Lovelock concluded that for this to be the case the gases must be in constant circulation, and that the pump driving this circulation was life.".
             The Gaia theory is a theory that the earth is alive.


Essays Related to Gaia

1. Essay on Gaia

... being affected by the organisms on earth, especially humans, and greatly hurting our earth. We will begin with the question, "What is the Gaia Theory?- The Gaia Theory, again, was proposed by James Lovelock in the 1960's while he was working as a consultant on the "Life on Mars- Viking ... he doesn't suggest that the earth is "alive,"" but it has the potential to be. A few years later he wrote a book called The Ages of Gaia, which turned his hypothesis into a theory saying that the earth, in a way, is alive, and all living things on the earth are keeping everything in ... process of res...

  • Word Count: 2564
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. The Gaia Hypothesis

James Lovelock is the inventor of the idea of Gaia, which, in his own words, is "the hypothesis, the model, in which the earth's living matter, air, oceans and land surface form a complex ... the symbiotic merger of nonnucleated bacteria that had previously existed independently. Another area of interest for Margulis was her long collaboration with Lovelock on the controversial Gaia hypothesis. The Gaia hypothesis proposes that the Earth can be viewed as a single self-regulating organismàthat is, a complex entity whose living and inorganic elements are interdependent ... of oxygen presen...

  • Word Count: 734
  • Approx Pages: 3

3. The Vision of a Sustainable Society

... Law with Environmental Law. This has eliminated the disunity and contradiction in man's activities which were, at bottom, a conflict between Man and Gaia. According to systemic models, the planning of sustained development goes hand in hand with planned implementation, and since then this has been set in ... system, including the man-made, the living and the geosystems. With this content the global mega-system cannot be simply identified with the Gaia system (understood as a compound of the geosphere and biosphere), as some biologists and most ecologists maintain. This is because that vie...

  • Word Count: 5235
  • Approx Pages: 21
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Crop Circles; The Truth is Out There

... and often appear overnight. Various explanations have been discussed, but there is still much of a debate as to who, or what, could be making these circles. The Gaia Theory, one theory that incorporates the ideas of "Mother Earth" showing signs of distress, was first thought out by a scientist named Timothy Zell in 1970. Later, in ... 1972, a British chemist by the name of James Lovelock refined the ideas of the Gaia Theory. The theory proposed that our planet is not lifeless; in fact, the crop circles are a response to "the atrocities committed against the planet by man and ... and po...

  • Word Count: 1386
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Sustainability as Symbiosis

Sustainability as Symbiosis is an article that focuses around the topic of sustainable development on what the author calls Gaia, or "the planetary ecosystem". Straight off the author compares the current degradation of resources that the earth is going through to ... it is a parasitic relationship, and that is why sustainable development has not yet been achieved. The only way to make sustainable development a reality is for humans and Gaia to have a symbiotic relationship, where both parties can benefit. To me, this article can be summed up with a simple saying: "you can't get something fo...

  • Word Count: 422
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. Ancient Greeks and the Divine

... continued to conceive asexually, creating Misery, Death, Doom, Sleep and the Fates (Warman.CLAS 1006 EL 10). Following Chaos, Gaia was born. Gaia was the goddess of the earth who produced Ouranos (Heaven) (Pomeroy et al. 83). According to Theogony line 127, Gaia gave birth to Ouranos "so that he might fence her in all around". The classical world was believed ... ...

  • Word Count: 1605
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography

7. Women in Ancient Greece

... Greeks, including Plato, thought that consulting the Delphi Oracle for major questions pertaining to life was necessary. Originally, Delphi was the site of worship to the ancient Greek mother goddess, Gaia. The most famous woman in ancient Greece was Sappho, the celebrated late seventh century, b.c.e. poet from Lesbos. We know very little about her life. Presumably she was married as she ... and giving it to man, Zeus created the first woman, Pandora. It is thought that Pandora was the human personification of the ancient inanimate mother goddess, Gaia. In vase paintings Pandora's icono...

  • Word Count: 7196
  • Approx Pages: 29
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Tigris

... ever gathered. To them, they spoke as one, in unison. "As this war of Rage continues, the Garou slaying kin and Folk alike, we are all victims. The wisdom of Gaia, and her sister, Seline is forgotten, and the rage of the glorious morning father has overtaken them all. Such is not our fate, that the Wolves may destroy us, for ... your side, as the last day approaches. Carry on the prophecy of Tigris, and his Kin, that none may forget us." With that, the two vanished from the realm of Gaia, and into their home, into the deep umbra. Long was the legend of Tigris told, and remembered, but a...

  • Word Count: 696
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Cross Cultural Families

... words of consent in public. These words were a chant, and were the same for all brides a grooms. The bride would say "Quando tu Gaius, ego Gaia"(When and where you are Gaius, I then and there am Gaia.) After these words of consent, the couple sat on stools, facing the alter and made an offering to the god Jupiter, which usually consisted of ... ...

  • Word Count: 1532
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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