Macat Library An Analysis of James E. Lovelock s Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (Paperback)

Gaia: A New Look At Life on Earth may continue to divide opinion but nobody can deny that the book offers a powerful insight into the creative thinking of its author James E. Lovelock. Published in 1979 Gaia offered a radically new hypothesis: the Earth Lovelock argued is a living entity. Together the planet and all its separate living organisms form a single self-regulating body sustaining life and helping it evolve through time. Lovelock sees humans as no more special than other elements of the planet railing against the once widely-held belief that the good of mankind is the only thing that matters. Despite being seen as radical and even idiotic on its publication a version of Lovelock s viewpoint has found resonance in contemporary debates about the environment and climate and has now broadly come to be accepted by modern thinkers. As man s effects on the climate become increasingly extreme more and more elements of the Earth s self-regulation seem to be unveiled - forcing scientists to ask how far the planet might be able to go in order self-regulate effectively. Indeed despite its far-fetched elements Lovelock s Gaia thesis seems to ring more convincingly today than ever before; that it does is largely a result of the critical thinking skills that allowed Lovelock to produce novel explanations for existing evidence and above all to connect existing fragments of evidence together in new ways.