Comments on: Book review – Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth

By: Book review – Living on Earth: Life, Consciousness and the Making of the Natural World | The Inquisitive Biologist

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 12:58:16 +0000

[…] Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis is unavoidable given the core theme of Living on Earth. Since I did a deep dive on this topic, I was very interested to read his sceptical but fair assessment that raises some of the same […]

LikeLike

By: inquisitivebiologist

inquisitivebiologist — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 17:56:28 +0000

In reply to Dr Nicole Chalmer.

Thanks for the feedback. I bring up the role of Lynn Margulis in my review of Michael Ruse’s The Gaia Hypothesis, the fourth part of this review series.

I agree that life rebounding after mass extinctions is incredible and, as mentioned, shows the terrific power of evolution. It does not strike me, however, that the hostile conditions and rapid changes leading to mass extinctions are congruent with the notion of a planetary system maintaining conditions suitable for life or somehow caring for it. These are moments where life persists despite, not because, of what the Earth throws at it.

LikeLike

By: Dr Nicole Chalmer

Dr Nicole Chalmer — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 12:00:00 +0000

As usual Lyn Margulis is forgotten – her thesis on how micro-organisms changed our planet seems to be ignored, yet she was an original part of the Gaia hypothesis.

See ” Microcosmos” , her book for another theory of how life begets life an d the conditions for life.

I do not see why extinction events imply that life has limited ability to maintain conditions for life. Rather the incredible ability to bounce back albeit in new forms, following mass extinction events, supports the hypothesis that life modifies itself and it’s environment to continue.

Dr NY Chalmer

LikeLiked by 1 person

By: Book review – Biocivilisations: A New Look at the Science of Life | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 31 May 2024 11:43:17 +0000

[…] #1: The Gaia hypothesis. In an earlier four-part review (you can start here) I dove into this idea and, long story short, concluded that it is mostly wrong, but stimulated […]

LikeLike

By: Book review – The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet | The Inquisitive Biologist

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 13:42:36 +0000

[…] is the final part of my four-part review series on the Gaia hypothesis (see also part 1, part 2, and part 3), James Lovelock’s notion that the Earth is a giant self-regulating […]

LikeLike

By: Book review – On Gaia: A Critical Investigation of the Relationship between Life and Earth | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 09:49:59 +0000

[…] decades, but how justified is this? In my previous reviews of Lovelock’s original 1979 book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth and the 1995 follow-up The Ages of Gaia, I was critical of various assumptions and claims expressed […]

LikeLike

By: Book review – The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth | The Inquisitive Biologist

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:56:18 +0000

[…] maintains conditions suitable for life on the planet. In the process of reviewing his first book, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, it became clear that that book was a time capsule, its text not updated from the 1979 original. […]

LikeLike