Gaia Theory - Relation to 2012 ?

May 28, 2008 – 5:13 am

What is Gaia Philosophy?

Gaia philosophy, named after the Greek goddess who personified the earth, relates to concepts that claim living organisms on a planet will affect the nature of their environment with the goal of making the environment more suitable for life. All organisms on an extraterrestrial life giving planet regulate the biosphere to the benefit of the whole. Gaia concept draws a connection between the survivability of a species, and its usefulness to the survival of the other species.

The first in-depth form of Gaia theory originated in 1970 from a British scientist named James Lovelock. His Gaia theory relates to homeostasis, and claims that resident life forms of a host planet merged with their environment have always acted and continue to act as a single, self-regulating system. The system includes surface rocks, soil, and the atmosphere. Lovelock’s Gaia theory stemmed from the work he did for NASA involving methods of detecting life on Mars.

Since 1970, many other forms of Gaia theory have arised. One theory holds that all lifeforms are part of a single planetary being, called Gaia. In this view, the atmosphere, the seas, the terrestrial crust would be the result of interventions carried out by Gaia, through the coevolving diversity of living organisms. Another Gaia theory holds that the entire Earth is a single unified organism. This view claims the Earth’s biosphere is consciously changing the climate in order to make conditions more suitable for life.

An argument against the idea that Gaia is a “living” organism is the fact that the planet has not been, and is not, able to reproduce. Lovelock’s response to this claims that the human interest in exploring and colonizing other planets in space is an example of Gaia being able to reproduce. The famous astronomer, Carl Sagan, once remarked “from a cosmic viewpoint, the space probes since 1959 have the character of a planet preparing to spread it’s seed”.

2012 - Revenge of Gaia?

As each individual species pursues its own self-interest, their combined actions tend to have counter-balancing effects on environmental change. In fact, Lovelock’s latest book is entitled “The Revenge of Gaia“. Unlike most 2012 predictions, he claims that Gaia’s self-regulation will likely prevent any extraordinary runaway effects that wipe out life itself.

I highly recommend the 2001 Gaia-themed film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. One of the main characters, Dr. Sid, was assumed to resemble James Lovelock. In the film, all living things are on the verge of exstinction and only Dr. Sid finds the way to stabilization using his Gaia theory knowledge. Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and called it a “technical milestone”.