Green | January 01, 2009 | 22 comments

The status of "Spaceship Earth" Gaia theory

source: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/12/the-status-of-s.html

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pjacobs51
One of the leading experts on planet Earth, James Lovelock, believes that there is very little we can do to stave off global warming catastrophes. Lovelock is the man who created the Gaia theory – that the earth is essentially a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism.

Lovelock developed the Gaia hypothesis as an outgrowth of his work for NASA on methods of detecting life on Mars, which he popularized with his 1979 book Gaia: A new look at life on Earth. He named this self-regulating living system after the Greek goddess Gaia, using a suggestion from the novelist William Golding, who was living in the same English village as Lovelock. The theory drew withering criticism from many in the scientific establishment, drawing the comparison with the resistance to the introduction of the idea of plate tectonics within geology, which took about 30 years before it became universally accepted as true.

Today, Lovelock believes that a rapid drop in carbon in the atmosphere could actually do more damage than good. He believes that the global warming that we are currently experiencing is offset by a cooling of 2-3ºC, caused by Global Dimming -essentially, the reduction of direct irradiance at the earth’s atmosphere as a result of industrial pollution, known to others as aerosol particles.

It’s a horrible catch 22 situation that leaves only a very small gap for any joy at all. If we continue to do nothing (note the use of the word continue), then we will doom ourselves. If we do do something, like a massive cut back in the emission of carbon in to our atmosphere, Lovelock believes that we would further damage Earth.
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22 comments // The status of "Spaceship Earth" Gaia theory

  • Brockie
  • csmonut
    • 0
      csmonut  

    • I have always thought of the Earth as being one giant organism. Everything here depends on the life and death of something else.
      Perhaps this organism can only take so much before it rebels.

      Science says that the earth is not a "life" friendly planet, as it tends to have these giant volcanic explosions that practically wipe out all life, or at least make it very inhospitable for a time.

    • 3 years ago
  • onechance
  • donkeyfly69
    • 0
      donkeyfly69  

    • "If we do do something, like a massive cut back in the emission of carbon in to our atmosphere, Lovelock believes that we would further damage Earth."

      i don't think that we could have such a rapid drop in carbon emissions with the current state of the world. people don't care enough. and once the environment gets better, people will care less

    • 3 years ago
  • paultreacy
  • asherp
    • 0
      asherp  

    • So if we stop burning fuel and creating particulate pollution, we cause the planet to warm because of the CO2.

      And if we keep going, we're fucked for sure.

      Yay industrial revolution!

    • 3 years ago
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  

    • I have a hard time understanding those who feel that humanity is some kind of inherently evil or naturally malevolent parasite or virus inhabiting the Earth (generally viewed from this perspective as an ultra-pure host). I guess I have just met too many really great people (heck, the saintly grandmothers alone could have their own area code). Many people are undoubtedly careless and yes, more than a handful are Truly Evil. But most, in my view, will do the right thing if properly educated and if the "right thing" is reasonably "doable" considering the particular individual's circumstances. I mean, all of the folks who drive hybrids may very well have box seats reserved for them in heaven, but the vast majority of people don't have the resources to even BEGIN to consider purchasing one (and this latest news will now muddy the waters as to the "rightness" of driving one, even though conserving fossil fuels would still seem to be a positive thing regardless of the possible contribution to a precipitous "carbon drop." I guess I also have a bit more faith in the ingenuity of the human mind to take such problems apart and find creative solutions. I doubt very, very much that we have less than two hundred years left as a species even if we did NOTHING with respect to these issues. Comparing the scientific and technological advances that have been made from 1808 to 2008, I would submit that the advances that will be made by 2208 will make the world something that is simply beyond our current imaginations (as good as some of those imaginations are) -- particularly if a sizeable subset of the scientific community moves (as it already has) to work on these issues now and continues to do so over the course of the next couple of centuries. But yes, spaceship and terraforming technologies would probably be a sensible place for public investment as well. Sorry if that seems Pollyannish. I am an American. I was raised to believe that an unsolved problem was something that just needed more work and greater focus. Our government has done some horrible, shameful things in our names these past 8 years. But we as a people stand for hope and achievement. We can beat this thing.

      cztheday

    • 3 years ago
  • csmonut
  • uppityprogressive
    • 0
      uppityprogressive  
    • Image

    • Our species is the virus on the planetary organism, Blessed Unrest describes the awakening immune system, which is also us. No telling if we will be in time.

    • 3 years ago
  • asherp
  • squeege
  • Alex_French
  • pjacobs51
  • cornflakes
  • kadugen
  • webgrafix
  • Vierotchka
  • pjacobs51
  • jubal
  • Vierotchka
  • pjacobs51
  • damnneargenius
    • 0
      damnneargenius  

    • Trippy.

      I had never heard of him or this theory before, although I apparently came up with a similar one on my own.

      But just before reading this post sent to me by pjacobs51, I just finished watching An Esoteric Agenda, which was a very interesting documentary that explained this exact sort of thing.

      Whatever the truth about global warming is, I certainly know that the current state of human ignorance and ridiculous behavior can only cause serious problems for the species in one way or another.

      It's just a matter of time.

    • 3 years ago
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