Gaia Hypothesis

The Gaia hypothesis addresses complex system cycles on Earth by using a medical metaphor of homeostasis for the global ecosystem. This concept expresses a process in which life-forms on the Earth grow, change, and die in ways that lead to the persistence of these or other forms. Specifically, the Gaia hypothesis proposes that life on Earth maintains the Earth's climate and atmospheric composition at an optimum for life. James E. Lovelock formulated the Gaia hypothesis, which was later championed by Lynn Margulis, who elaborated on symbiosis with microorganisms.

Gaia is the name of the Greek Earth goddess. In recent decades, as climate change data accumulated about the connectivity of plants and other organisms with geochemical processes, such as the carbon cycle and oxygen cycle, the idea of Earth as an integrated system gained credibility. The human disruption of Earth system components such as rainforests and the ozone layer were hypothesized to contribute to the serious changes being observed around the Earth. Skeptics contend that supporters of the Gaia tend to attach mysticism and spiritual significance to ecosystem processes. Lovelock, espousing his beliefs on planet sciences, admits to pushing the metaphor of an alive, self-regulating system.

International global researchers in the 2001 Amsterdam Declaration interpreted the Gaia concept as an Earth system science. This Earth system behaves as a single, self-regulating system, composed of physical, chemical, biological, and human components. The interactions and feedback between the components are complex and exhibit multiscale temporal and spatial variability. This declaration or definition has the characteristics of a homeostatic system: maintaining constant conditions, key organ systems, negative and positive feedbacks, and temporal variability. For example, using the Gaia metaphor, the human species could be seen as an organ. With these characteristics, Gaia is commonly seen by scientists not as an individual but as an integrated biosystem—that is, an ecosystem. Recent catastrophic changes such as the ozone hole, global climate change, fisheries failures, and sea otter and sea lion declines have highlighted the behavior of complex system cycles in which stability domains may shift when tipping points are reached.

The interdependence seen in ecosystems and global cycles points out a parallel that exists between the Gaia hypothesis, when it is presented as a metaphor, and Native American ways of understanding how the world works. The experience of applied environmental science seen in traditional activities of hunting, fishing, gathering, and gardening is congruent [Page 188]with the Native American concept that all is “alive.” The notion of Gaia, with its implication of the Earth as a living, evolving system with new emergent properties arising from the interaction of animate and inanimate parts brings a holistic view of the Earth seen in traditional systems. Lovelock presents a metaphor of an Earth whose goal is to sustain habitability similar to animism used by indigenous people to explain nature. The “spirits” that exert power over weather and other natural phenomena have human-like personalities, in contrast to the technical explanation of ecosystem science, but many concepts of modern science are still invisible theory to nontechnical people. A typical spirit in animism is the spirit who controls the land (Gaia). Spirits serve as contacts that allow people to maintain harmony with nature. The details of spirit religions vary among cultures but possess common themes of attachment to the land on which they live and a world in motion. The constant flux notion results in a web-like network of relationships. The Gaia hypothesis fits well the indigenous concept that since everything is interrelated, all of creation is related. Similar to Gaia, the only constant is change. In contrast to past perspectives, the oscillations in both natural and man-made chemicals are now expected under certain conditions.

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