Gaia Hypothesis

Recently, James Lovelock, the creator of the Gaia hypothesis died on his 103rd birthday.

What is Gaia's hypothesis?

It is named after the ancient Greek goddess of Earth.
It is an interaction between living organisms on the Earth with their inorganic surroundings forming a complex, self-regulating and synergistic system that helps to perpetuate and maintain optimum conditions for life on the planet.
It posits that life on Earth is a self-regulating community of organisms interacting with each other and their surroundings.

About James Lovelock:

He was one of the UK’s most respected independent scientists.
He spent his life advocating for climate measures, starting decades before many others started to take notice of the crisis.
In 2006, the Geological Society of London awarded Lovelock the Wollaston Medal in part for his work on the Gaia hypothesis.

Criticism

The significant increase in global surface temperatures contradicts the observatory comment according to the theory. Salinity in the ocean is far from being at constant equilibrium as river salts have raised the salinity
The Gaia hypothesis was initially criticized for being teleological and against the principles of natural selection.

Later refinements aligned the Gaia hypothesis with ideas from fields such as Earth system science, biogeochemistry, and systems ecology.

Source: The Hindu

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