Gaia, who is she? She is what most of us would consider home. This is true irregardless of having been afforded a view of her from outer space. The word Gaia originates from the Greek goddess of the earth, the same whore who spawned and married Uranus only to have become the mother of the Titans and the Cyclopes. Gaia, taken into the context of today's science, is the living Earth. She is unique from her dead rock brothers and sisters: Venus, Mars, and Mercury.
Throughout human history our understanding of the world and our place in it has evolved. We went from thinking that the world was flat fearing that we could fall off its edge to one day sailing around it and realizing that there was an unreachable horizon. Newton laid the groundworks in Physics for Einstein. Einstein introduced the theory of relativity and scholars like Hawking have expanded upon it. Our knowledge of the enviornment and the way things work will never be definite and complete. The greatest of minds have formed all of the current theories that we hold true and faithful today. When it comes to taking action against global warming we have theories about theories, or as I like to call them, opinions.
Theories about Theories: aka Opinions
I used to be an ignorant skeptic on the matter of the Earth and her well-being. The world appeared to be unscathed by anything I did to it. I saw no remorse in littering, using airconditioning on a hot day, or leaving the night light on in fear of the Candy Man. I had no idea that I was ruining ecosystems, contributing to CO2 pollution, and putting pressure on engineers to develop new sources of renewable energy, all in the same day.
Since my days as a tike I have acquired a basic understanding of biology, chemistry, physics, and oceanography. When I learned about all these disciplines they made sense to me. Meanwhile I was also being pushed to learn about catholicism. I was better able to identify with mitochondria being used to generate energy than praying for strength from an invisible man. All of the above subjects fascinated me but I never performed well in any of them, except for oceanography of course. With my broad understanding of them all I can at least tell that they all came together in a mysterious and majestic way in the world of Gaia. I didn't have what it took to become a scientist or an engineer, but that's ok. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that something drastic is happening to our beautiful home Gaia.
Gaia is a theory that the Earth is a living and self-regulating system in which all forms of life we know inhabit. It surpasses Darwin's theory of evolution and perplexes us to think of the entire planet as a whole rather than just in terms of the survival of an individual species. Everything we know about geology, oceanography, biology, chemistry can fall below the theory of Gaia.
It's time to stop thinking of the planet as if it were a dead terrestrial rock. It has feelings, too.
To be continued...
~Anthans
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