A Thomistic Analysis of the Gaia Hypothesis: How New is This New Look at Life on Earth?

The year was 1979. Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, a book by James Lovelock (1919–), was published to much fanfare.1 To much less, “Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest,” an essay by Aldo Leopold (1887–1948), was also published2—posthumously, exactly three decades after Leopold’s celebrated environmental classic ...

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Gaia: A new look at life on earth. by James Lovelock. Oxford University Press, 1995. Pp. 148. Price £6.99 (paperback). ISBN 19 286030 5

Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society ◽

10.1002/qj.49712253014 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 122 (530) ◽

pp. 563-563 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Keyword(s):

Oxford University ◽

James Lovelock ◽

Life On Earth ◽

Oxford University Press ◽

New Look

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Gaia: A new look at life on earth

Atmospheric Environment (1967) ◽

10.1016/0004-6981(80)90149-3 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 14 (7) ◽

pp. 864 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

James P. Lodge

Keyword(s):

Life On Earth ◽

New Look

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A Stable or an Unstable World?

On Gaia ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691121581.003.0008 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Toby Tyrrell

Keyword(s):

Compelling Evidence ◽

Earth History ◽

Gaia Hypothesis ◽

The Earth ◽

Constant Environment ◽

Earth Environment ◽

Life On Earth

This chapter examines the claim of Earth's stability by looking at data pertaining to past variability of the Earth environment. The Gaia hypothesis proposes that life has had a hand on the tiller of Earth climate, ensuring stable equable climates throughout Earth history. The chapter argues differently. The data do not point to a constant environment, or to a cozy and hospitable one. In addition to the overall trend toward ever-icier climates over the last 100 million years, there is also compelling evidence that the tiller has on other occasions allowed climate to drift into dangerous states threatening to completely extinguish all life on Earth.

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Life on Earth is hard to spot

The Anthropocene Review ◽

10.1177/2053019620918939 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 248-272

Author(s):

Timothy M Lenton ◽

Sébastien Dutreuil ◽

Bruno Latour

Keyword(s):

Energy Balance ◽

Earth System ◽

Gaia Hypothesis ◽

The Earth ◽

Life On Earth

The triumph of the Gaia hypothesis was to spot the extraordinary influence of Life on the Earth. ‘Life’ is the clade including all extant living beings, as distinct from ‘life’ the class of properties common to all living beings. ‘Gaia’ is Life plus its effects on habitability. Life’s influence on the Earth was hard to spot for several reasons: biologists missed it because they focused on life not Life; climatologists missed it because Life is hard to see in the Earth’s energy balance; Earth system scientists opted instead for abiotic or human-centred approaches to the Earth system; Scientists in general were repelled by teleological arguments that Life acts to maintain habitable conditions. Instead, we reason from organisms’ metabolisms outwards, showing how Life’s coupling to its environment has led to profound effects on Earth’s habitability. Recognising Life’s impact on Earth and learning from it could be critical to understanding and successfully navigating the Anthropocene.

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