The Gaia Theory
What if Earth was like a cell?
It is popularly known that religions based on paganism and animism see Earth as a being — mostly as a mother. Mother Earth is seen sometimes as a benevolent and generous God, as a sentient being, a wrathful destroyer (during famines etc) and even a blissful deity. These religions, mostly look to her as a female God that looks after every living and non-living thing on this planet. Science sees the Earth as a planet — and planets are considered to be non-living. Life according to this subject, grows on top of the planet. These theories are not the only theories. According to Gaia theory, these are misconstrued ideas.
Before we explain the Gaia Theory, we should understand the Gaia Paradigm. What is the Gaia Paradigm? It refers to viewing scientific ideas of Earth, “with a cultural understanding of human society as a seamless continuum of that system”. This paradigm pushes us to think of Gaia as a living system and human beings as just a part of it. This motivates us to learn more about the scientific insights from those scientists that study the Gaia Theory, and also those that are related to other Earth studying scientific systems.
What is the Gaia Theory? The Gaia Theory sees planets, at least the Earth, as more than just balls of rocks and mud. They don’t think that Earth has life on it. They theorize that Earth is life itself — it’s living. The Gaia theory states that living things and all their non-living and inorganic surroundings evolve together as a single complex living organism. This organism effects the chemical system that’s present on Earth.
According to the scientists, the Gaia theory can provide information about climate change and other issues related to health, energy and agriculture. The researchers believe that this living system that is Earth self-regulates ocean salinity, atmospheric content, and global temperature. It keeps these and other environmental factors in check as automatically, as your stomach releases acid to digest food. It’s not a coincidence that Earth has life. The scientists have observed that the living system on Earth seems to maintain the environmental conditions required for life.
All of the above information allows for a comparison of the Planet Earth to that of a body of any living organism that goes through homeostasis, death and birth of new cells and more. It does whatever it needs to, to survive, and this can be seen when we realize that the luminosity of the sun has increased by 30% in approximately 4 billion years. The entire ecosystem — all that’s living, non-living, organic, non-organic- has reacted to it in a way that suitable temperature levels have maintained. Over the last 15–20 years, scientists have been able to pinpoint the mechanisms the Earth uses for self-regulation. For example, clouds form over the ocean because of the metabolism of oceanic algae. During the process of metabolism, the oceanic algae release a large sulfur molecule (it comes out as waste), which acts as condensation nuclei for raindrops. The formation of clouds is not purely a physical or chemical phenomenon. It helps regulate the temperature of the Earth and return sulphur to the terrestrial ecosystems.
The Gaia theory was theorized by Dr James Lovelock in the late 1960’s. He was a British inventor and scientist who had just finished with NASA in determining the nonexistence of extra-terrestrials on Mars. His research on the Gaia theory has revealed much about life on Earth. A microbiologist from the University of Massachusettes, Lynn Margulis, supported Dr James Lovelock’s discoveries. The theory has inspired many over the last 20 years, some of which are famous personalities like Freeman Dyson (physicist), mythology expert Joseph Campbell, microbiologist Elisabet Sahtouris, John Todd (inventor), Al Gore, and Vaclav Havel. These people and many others have been inspired by the Gaia theory and how useful it is for designing sustainable lives and institutions. It has already ignited ideas for its practical application in the fields of policy, economy, science, and others.
Though this is so many other scientists disagree with the Gaia theory since they feel like it needs more scientific and recorded proof to be legitimate. The scientific idea that Earth is like a cell, whose components (like the nucleus, mitochondria etc) comprise of living and non-living beings resonates with a lot of minds and goes with many spiritual texts as well (although it may be stated in other words). Regardless of whether this theory is true, it is a fact that we have to reform our policies in a way that safeguards the environment we live in. After all, we aren’t the only living beings, and so, in this retrospect, if Earth becomes inhabitable for human beings, and we become extinct, Earth will still have life on it. Just like when the dinosaurs were eradicated. Something to think about isn’t it?
