Introduction to Gaia Theory

Who is Gaia? : Gaia is the name the ancient Greeks used for the Earth goddess. This goddess, in common with the female deities of he other early religions, was once gentle, feminine, and nurturing, but also ruthlessly cruel to those who failed to live in harmony with the planet. This name appeared to be particularly appropriate for the new hypothesis, which took shape in the late 1960s.

Gaia Theory: James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis was first described in terms of life shaping the environment, rather than the other way round. But when our understanding of Gaia grew, we realised that it was not the life or the biosphere that did the regulatory process. It was the entire system itself. Now, we have the Gaia theory, which sees the evolution of organisms so closely coupled with the evolution of their physical and chemical environment that they form a single evolutionary and self-regulatory process. We really have got to thank James Lovelock, the founder for Gaia theory.

In this website, we would not go into details about James Lovelock's Gaia theory, but only look upon the Earth as a living being, Gaia. In other words, Gaia is personified as a living being that is responsible for the safety and welfare of the Earth inhabitants. We will look at the terrible ways mankind treats Gaia, and how she is going to deal with mankind, in other words, how mankind has become a plague for Gaia, and how she is going to fight back with her limitless powers. This website also showcases the efforts of kind souls to help Gaia, and reasons why we ought to help her to fight against those unscrupulous humans. Finally, we will look forward into the future with our original ideas of featuring Gaia and Man in the three different relationships that we experience in our daily lives, and the four possible outcomes that we can expect from Gaia and Man.

Last but not least, I would like to clarify the point that "Man" as in the context of this website is purely defined as the human race as a whole and not the sexist view of male.

Return to Contents Page