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THE NORTHERN VIRGINIA REGIONAL PARK AUTHORITY is a public park system with 19 parks in 3 counties (Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun) and 3 cities (Alexandria, Fairfax City, and Falls Church) in Northern Virginia. Potomac Overlook Regional Park, located in Arlington, Virginia, houses the park authority’s nature center and naturalist staff, and as been leading efforts to educate the public about the Gaia Theory for over 15 years. In 2006, the Gaia Theory will be Potomac Overlook’s guiding theme, highlighted by a conference on October 14 and 15 at which top scientists have already been scheduled to speak.
Synopsis of the Gaia Theory
The Gaia Theory posits that the organic and inorganic components of Planet Earth operate together as a single living system that is self-generating and self-regulating. It suggests that this living system has automatically controlled global temperature, atmospheric content, ocean salinity, and other factors to ensure its own survival. In this respect, the living system of Earth can be thought of analogous to the workings of any individual organism that regulates body temperature, blood salinity, etc. So, for instance, even though the luminosity of the sun – the Earth’s heat source – has increased by about 30% since life began almost 4 billion years ago, the living system has reacted as a whole to maintain temperatures at a very even level, suitable for life.
The Gaia theory was developed in the late 1960's by Dr. James Lovelock, a British Scientist and inventor, shortly after his work with NASA in determining that there was probably no life on Mars. His research led to profound new insights about life on Earth. The theory gained an early supporter in Lynn Margulis, a microbiologist at the University of Massachusetts. In the past 15-20 years, many of the mechanisms by which Earth self-regulates have been identified. As one example, it has been shown that cloud formation over the open ocean is almost entirely a function of the metabolism of oceanic algae that emit a large sulfur molecule (as a waste gas) that becomes the condensation nuclei for raindrops. Previously, it was thought that cloud formation over the ocean was a purely chemical/physical phenomenon. The cloud formation not only helps regulate Earth’s temperature, it is an important mechanism by which sulfur is returned to terrestrial ecosystems.
The Gaia Theory has inspired many leading figures of the past 20 years, including Vaclav Havel, John Todd (inventor), Freeman Dyson (physicist), Al Gore, Joseph Campbell (mythology expert), and Elisabet Sahtouris (microbiologist). These and many other people have written and spoken eloquently about how the Gaia Theory can help us model human activities after the living systems of our planet; the concept offers lessons for the design of economic, energy, social and governmental systems.
Synopsis of the Gaia Theory
The Gaia Theory posits that the organic and inorganic components of Planet Earth operate together as a single living system that is self-generating and self-regulating. It suggests that this living system has automatically controlled global temperature, atmospheric content, ocean salinity, and other factors to ensure its own survival. In this respect, the living system of Earth can be thought of analogous to the workings of any individual organism that regulates body temperature, blood salinity, etc. So, for instance, even though the luminosity of the sun – the Earth’s heat source – has increased by about 30% since life began almost 4 billion years ago, the living system has reacted as a whole to maintain temperatures at a very even level, suitable for life.
The Gaia theory was developed in the late 1960's by Dr. James Lovelock, a British Scientist and inventor, shortly after his work with NASA in determining that there was probably no life on Mars. His research led to profound new insights about life on Earth. The theory gained an early supporter in Lynn Margulis, a microbiologist at the University of Massachusetts. In the past 15-20 years, many of the mechanisms by which Earth self-regulates have been identified. As one example, it has been shown that cloud formation over the open ocean is almost entirely a function of the metabolism of oceanic algae that emit a large sulfur molecule (as a waste gas) that becomes the condensation nuclei for raindrops. Previously, it was thought that cloud formation over the ocean was a purely chemical/physical phenomenon. The cloud formation not only helps regulate Earth’s temperature, it is an important mechanism by which sulfur is returned to terrestrial ecosystems.
The Gaia Theory has inspired many leading figures of the past 20 years, including Vaclav Havel, John Todd (inventor), Freeman Dyson (physicist), Al Gore, Joseph Campbell (mythology expert), and Elisabet Sahtouris (microbiologist). These and many other people have written and spoken eloquently about how the Gaia Theory can help us model human activities after the living systems of our planet; the concept offers lessons for the design of economic, energy, social and governmental systems.
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