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Title: Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth by James Lovelock ISBN: 0-19-286218-9 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Imagine an organism as big as Earth!
Comment: Reading Edward Wilson's "The Future of Life" served as the spark to pick up and read this book. And its true, good things do come in small packages. The book is all of 140 pages, and is written in a lean, but not glossed-over style. Robert Lovelock (to my knowledge) is the contemporary father of the study of the earth as a complete living system.
Lovelock readily admits that the book serves more to promote the dialog about our planet as a living, breathing whole and to share key discoveries that support his concept. (He states in the Preface that his follow-on book, "The Ages of Gaia" aims to build the scientific argument to the Gaia theory.)
By no means, does Lovelock detour around the science that supports his case. With the scope of the topic requiring knowledge of both physical and biological science, and the small number of pages, he manages to instruct and create a sense of awe in a short amount of time.
The 3 major principles he brings to light about Gaia are:
1.Gaia exhibits a tendency to keep conditions (e.g., temperature, air quality) constant for all terrestrial life.
2.Like other living systems, Gaia has vital organs at the core, and expandable or redundant ones on the periphery.
3.Under the worse conditions, Gaia responses similar to other cybernetic systems (i.e., where time constant and loop gain are important)
The material is far reaching in both its scope and in shaping our understanding of where we stand. Put in the context of Gaia, we have straddled ourselves to the largest of all known living and breathing creatures.
Rating: 4
Summary: Listening to the sound of the world.....
Comment: Simply written, mythically convincing, and conveying an idea--Gaia--so evident to the intuitive feel of life here that it's hard even to summon the will to question it.
Lovelock treads difficult ground. Apparently unaware of depth psychology's amplifications of the "anima mundi," the World Soul described by Plato and so many aboriginal socities, Lovelock seeks to move the proof into the realm of science without sounding--in this book--overly scientific.
One could wish he'd dreamed into the Gaia image more deeply and less literally. At the same time, empirical research could go a long way toward establishing the systemic, globe-regulating processes he envisions in this book. Whether such science would convince those who benefit financially from colonizing and exploiting the world's resources is open to question.
While I don't share the author's optimistic belief in Gaia's capacity to regulate herself despite our ever-increasing power to disrupt her systems, I admire the attempt to give current form to an ancient idea...an idea with tremendous archetypal punch and relevancy.
If you buy this book, use it as a point of departure--into biology, ecology, or ecopsychology, perhaps. Or into that state of humility that pauses to wonder what the world is thinking and feeling.
Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting Hypothesis in Somewhat Convoluted Form
Comment: James Lovelock has created a powerful and interesting argument in this book that will keep scientists busy for centuries. He notices that there is an ability for the Earth to maintain relatively constant conditions in temperature, atmosphere, salinity and pH of the oceans, and reductions in pollutants that defies the simple observations of what "should" happen. From this, he concludes that there is a complex of physical, chemical and biological interrelationships that work like a living organism, which he defines as the Gaia Hypothesis. For defining that concept and providing some of the measurements to establish its premises, he deserves a 7 star rating.
Unfortunately, the argument is expressed in overlong and convoluted fashion. He deliberately limits himself to a nonscientific explanation in this book. The scientific version of the argument is in The Ages of Gaia. Although the book is not long, it certainly could have been condensed into a longish article for Scientific American or The Atlantic Monthly. My second quibble is that the editor was nowhere in sight on the organization of the book. The key point is often buried in the third sentence of the last paragraph in a chapter. The argument in between wanders into all kinds of places where it doesn't need to go. For organization and editing, I give this book a one star rating.
So the average is a 4 star rating. The writing itself is pleasant enough. Don't let the lack of organization and editing put you off, for it is worth your while to read this book. It will remind you of the benefits of the sort of sytems thinking that Peter Senge talks about in The Fifth Discipline.
The other thing you will learn is the weakness of scientific work that fails to develop enough field data and to connect enough with other disciplines. I was struck by the same observations recently while visiting environmental scientists at the Smithsonian Institution. The basics in many of these areas have yet to be measured and evaluated. This book will point countless generations forward in understanding how our plant maintains its environment that permits life to flourish. Clearly, it is a stallbusting effort to replace "stalled" thinking about the history and future of the Earth. I found the key questions (such as why doesn't the ocean become more saline?) to be irresistible. I think you will, too. Enjoy and think!
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Title: The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth (Commonwealth Fund Book Program (Series).) by J. E. Lovelock ISBN: 0393312399 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: May, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Symbiotic Planet : A New Look at Evolution (Science Masters Series) by Lynn Margulis ISBN: 0465072720 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Gaia: The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine by J. E. Lovelock ISBN: 0195216741 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: January, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Evolution from Our Microbial Ancestors by Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan, Lewis Thomas ISBN: 0520210646 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Homage to Gaia: The Life of an Independent Scientist by J. E. Lovelock ISBN: 0198604297 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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