gaia hypothesis
- Created by: Psycheart
- Created on: 28-11-16 15:11
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- The Gaia Hypothesis
- Ecological extension (Eco-Holism): All ecosystems and living things inter-dependant.
- Is focused on the whole environment- seeks to respect and include all aspects of the ecosystems as intrinsically valuable entities.
- Gaia Hypothesis: World's physical properties and biosphere join together to form a complex interacting system.
- Evidence of Fossils
- Lovelock: His understanding was developed by looking at fossils that showed that, even with extreme changes in weather in the past, life in some form has always survived. (extremophiles)
- Survival of life after the meteor killed the dinosaurs= Gaia's intelligence.
- Life can't be destroyed is Gaia doesn't permit it.
- Modern examples of survival: Ecosystems redeveloping living organisms after nuclear testing or accidents (e.g. Chernobyl) .
- James Lovelock (1919-)
- Put forward his hypothesis in 1977; suggesting Earth is a massive, ecocentric, self-regulating, biological organism.
- "for me, Gaia is a religious as well as a scientific concept, and in both spheres it is manageable... God and Gaia, theology and science, even physics and biology are not separate but a single way of thought". (THE AGES OF GAIA)
- Not necessarily centred on the survival of humanity.
- Human kind is not indispensable to Earth, therefore the idea that man is superior to other life is flawed.
- Developed upon ideas of aboriginal and other indigenous cultures of the Earth as a living entity that will ensure survival and longevity of the planet.
- Lovelock: the planet reulates itself in favour of life and has a sense of intelligence that allows life in some form.
- Put forward his hypothesis in 1977; suggesting Earth is a massive, ecocentric, self-regulating, biological organism.
- Humans and the Gaia system:
- Unless humans value and treats Gaia with respect, our survival as a species is under threat.
- Confront the environmental crisis of . negligence or become another extinct species.
- Challenges to the Gaia Hypothesis
- Richard Dawkins (1941-)
- Lovelock's theory that life 'clubs together' for some mutual advantage or benefit is inconceivable.
- Basic evolutionary theory disproves this almost entirely.
- Scientific idea of 'survival of the fittest' means species adapt and develop in response to altered conditions.
- Basic evolutionary theory disproves this almost entirely.
- Lovelock's theory that life 'clubs together' for some mutual advantage or benefit is inconceivable.
- Lynn Margulis (1938-)
- Dawkin's and the Gaia hypothesis are compatible if SYMBIOSIS is considered.
- Organisms will, at all times, combines with other organisms in a SYMBIOTIC relationship to survive- whilst remaining individual organisms.
- Examples from nature: Pilot Fish that clean the teeth of sharks in return for protection.
- Organisms will, at all times, combines with other organisms in a SYMBIOTIC relationship to survive- whilst remaining individual organisms.
- SYMBIOSIS: Living organisms work together to ensure mutual survival.
- Dawkin's and the Gaia hypothesis are compatible if SYMBIOSIS is considered.
- Richard Dawkins (1941-)
- Gaia: Greek goddess of Earth- believed to be intrinsically part of the planet.
- Ecological extension (Eco-Holism): All ecosystems and living things inter-dependant.
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