Gaia Theory

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This article discusses the Gaia Theory, initially proposed by Lynn Margulis. This is one specific form of Gaia theory; other forms exist.

Gaia theories include some aspects of the ideas that the creatures on a planet modify the nature of the planet, that all creatures on a planet are regulated to the benefit of the whole, and that the entire life biomass and the non-living things which compose the total mass of the earth form a type of regulatory system which in itself would be considered a living being, which is referred to as Gaia (after the Greek Goddess). Scientific Gaia theories were initiated as the Gaia Hypothesis by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in 1979. A simple model that is often used to illustrate the original Gaea Hypothesis is the so-called Daisyworld simulation.

Margulis's version of Gaia Theory modifies the Gaia Hypothesis to make a lesser claim: that the Earth's biosphere tends to homeorhetic set points[?] much like the technical ceilings[?] and technical floors[?] purported to exist in the stock markets. Accordingly, the Earth is not a living organism which can live or die all at once, but rather a kind of community of trust which can exist at many discrete levels of integration.

Coauthor of the original Gaia Hypothesis, "Lynn Margulis, tells us that Earth is not homeostatic but homeorhetic: that is, the composition of Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere are regulated around "set points" as in homeostasis, but those set points change with time... Gaia is just symbiosis as seen from space." - from Greenpeace (http://cybercentre.greenpeace.org//t/s//996755792/1007012854/1007026932/1013059381) apparently in reference to Lynn Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New View of Evolution.

See also

• Gaia theory