The Gaia Theory

Paper Summary:

This paper explains and examines the Gaia Theory, which proposes that the earth is itself a tremendously large and complex super-organism, comprising all of the other life forms dependant upon it in very much the same fashion that the human body comprises the many trillions of individual living cellular organisms that, collectively, constitute a human being. The paper first details some of the criticisms as well as the support for Lovelock's theory, outlines the essential elements of the theory, and then provides a critical analysis of the theory.

From the Paper:

"In the 1960's, James Lovelock, a British atmospheric chemist, was engaged in research commissioned by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States. Specifically, the studies were intended to develop a method for determining reliably whether or not biological life existed on Mars. Part of Lovelock's work involved analyzing certain elements of Earth's atmospheric properties and mechanisms, in order to understand how a planet teeming with biological life might be differentiated accurately from interplanetary distances from a planet completely devoid of biological life (Enteractive, 1995)."

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