Most of us
sense that the Earth is more than a sphere of rock with a thin
layer of air, ocean and life covering the surface. We feel that
we belong here as if this planet were indeed our home. Long ago
the Greeks, thinking this way, gave to the Earth the name Gaia
or, for short, Ge. In those days, science and theology were one
and science, although less precise, had soul. As time passed
this warm relationship faded and was replaced by the frigidity
of the schoolmen. The life sciences, no longer concerned with
life, fell to classifying dead things and even to vivisection.
Ge was stolen from theology to become no more the root from
which the disciplines of geography and geology were named. Now
at last there are signs of a change. Science becomes holistic
again and rediscovers soul, and theology, moved by ecumenical
forces, begins to realise that Gaia is not to be subdivided for
academic convenience and that Ge is much more than just a
prefix.
The new understanding has
come from going forth and looking back to see the Earth from
space. The vision of that splendid white flecked blue sphere
stirred us all, no matter that by now it is almost a visual
cliche. It even opens the mind's eye, just as a voyage away
from home enlarges the perspective of our love for those who
remain there.
The first impact of those
voyages was the sense of wonder given to the astronauts and to
us as we shared their experience vicariously through
television, but at the same time the Earth was viewed from
outside by the more objective gaze of scientific instruments.
These devices were quite impervious to human emotion yet they
also sent back the information that let us see the Earth as a
strange and beautiful anomaly. They showed our planet is made
of the same elements and in much the same proportions as are
Mars and Venus, but they also revealed our sibling planets to
be bare and barren and as different from the Earth as a robin
from a rock.
We now see that the air, the
ocean and the soil are much more than a mere environment for
life; they are a part of life itself. Thus the air is to life
just as is the fur to a cat or the nest for a bird. Not living
but something made by living things to protect against an
otherwise hostile world. For life on Earth the air is our
protection against the cold depths and fierce radiations of
space.
There is nothing unusual in
the idea of life on Earth interacting with the air, sea and
rocks, but it took a view from outside to glimpse the
possibility that this combination might consist of a single
giant living system and one with the capacity to keep the Earth
always at a state most favorable for the life upon
it.
An entity comprising a whole
planet and with a powerful capacity to regulate the climate
needs a name to match. It was the novelist William Golding who
proposed the name Gaia. Gladly we accepted his suggestion and
Gaia is also the name of the hypothesis of science which
postulates that the climate and the composition of the Earth
always are close to an optimum for whatever life inhabits
it.
The evidence gathered in
support of Gaia is now considerable but as is often the way of
science, this is less important than is its use as a kind of
looking glass for seeing the world differently, and which makes
us ask new questions about the nature of Earth.
If we are "all creatures
great and small," from bacteria to whales, part of Gaia then we
are all of us potentially important to her well being. We knew
in our hearts that the destruction of a whole range of other
species was wrong but now we know why. No longer can we merely
regret the passing of one of the great whales, or the blue
butterfly, nor even the smallpox virus. When we eliminate one
of these from Earth, we may have destroyed a part of ourselves,
for we also are a part of Gaia.
There are many possibilities
for comfort as there are for dismay in contemplating the
consequences of our membership in this great commonwealth of
living things. It may be that one role we play is as the senses
and nervous system for Gaia. Through our eyes she has for the
first time seen her very fair face and in our minds become
aware of herself. We do indeed belong here. The earth is more
than just a home, it's a living system and we are part of
it.
EFN
- Environmentalists For Nuclear
Energy
