The Ecology Book

214

LIFE CHANGES

EARTH TO ITS

OWN PURPOSES

THE GAIA HYPOTHESIS

I

n 1979, British scientist James

Lovelock’s book Gaia: A New

Look at Life on Earth presented

his Gaia hypothesis to a general

readership. In essence, Lovelock

claimed that Earth is a single, self-

regulating system, in which living

and nonliving elements combine

to promote life. The book quickly

became a bestseller, and caught

the imagination of the growing

Green movement, offering a fresh

approach to environmentalism.

What Lovelock proposed was

not without precedent. In the 1920s,

Vladimir Vernadsky, a Russian

scientist, had developed the idea

of the biosphere, the zone of Earth

that holds all living organisms, and

suggested that it could be seen as

a single entity in which organic and

IN CONTEXT

KEY FIGURE

James Lovelock (1919 –)

BEFORE

1935 British botanist Arthur

Tansley uses “ecosystem” to

describe an interdependent

community of biological and

nonbiological components.

1953 In Fundamentals of

Ecology, American ecologist

Eugene Odum describes

Earth as a collection of

interlocking ecosystems.

AFTER

1985 In the US, the first

conference on the Gaia

hypothesis is held, entitled,

“Is the Earth a Living

Organism?”

2004 James Lovelock voices

his support for nuclear power

over renewable energy.

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