Gaia Hypothesis

In News

• Recently, James Lovelock, the creator of the Gaia hypothesis died on his 103rd birthday.

About Gaia hypothesis

• James Lovelock:
  • He was one of the UK’s most respected independent scientists.
  • He spent his life advocating for climate measures, starting decades before many others started to take notice of the crisis.
  • In 2006, the Geological Society of London awarded Lovelock the Wollaston Medal in part for his work on the Gaia hypothesis.
• Gaia hypothesis:
  • It is named after the ancient Greek goddess of Earth.
  • It proposes that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic and self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet.
  • It posits that life on Earth is a self-regulating community of organisms interacting with each other and their surroundings.
• Criticism
  • The Gaia hypothesis was initially criticised for being teleological and against the principles of natural selection.
  • Later refinements aligned the Gaia hypothesis with ideas from fields such as Earth system science, biogeochemistry and systems ecology.

Source: ET