Human rights are not enough
- Autores: James Lovelock
- Localización: Contributions to Science, ISSN-e 1575-6343, Vol. 2, Nº. 3, 2003, págs. 375-379
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
To see the Earth as if it were an ant's nest is one of the gifts brought back from our journeys into space. Scientist s call the nests of social insects like wasps and ants "superorganisms" because they can regulate their inner environment almost as well as humans can regulate our bodies. These insects keep their nest always comfortable without any sense of purpose and without a plan. They do it automatically. The view from space also led me to see our planet as if it were a superorganism, something able to regulate the climate and atmosphere so as always to be comfortable for life. And this view of the world which I have called Gaia is the subject of this article.
Earth self-regulation: The Gaia ecosystem So let us assume that the Earth self regulates; that on our planet organism s, rocks, air and oceans all act in unison to keep the climate and chemistry comfortable. I am not asking the reader to suspend science and believe in some mysterious Earth mother with teleological powers, but to imagine a planet-sized ecosystem, Gaia, something that emerged when organisms and their material environment evolved together.
