– Here’s a question and answer session with James Lovelock. Well worth a read.
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The eminent scientist answers your questions, such as ‘Is the Earth really a living organism?’ and ‘Why do you like nuclear power?’
I have heard that the Gaia theory means that the Earth is alive. What does that mean, exactly? Roger Middleton, Chester
The Earth system (Gaia) shares many attributes with a living cell; it metabolises, it responds to changes in its environment, it can die, and it reduces its internal entropy by taking in high quantum energy as sunlight and excreting infra-red radiation to space. It does not reproduce, but something that has lived about 3 billion years hardly needs to reproduce; selection theory asserts that organisms reproduce at a rate reciprocally related to their lifespan. Gaia’s reproduction rate would therefore be expected to be less than one in three billion years.
Some scientists say that your suggestions for geoengineering sea algae will never work. Is it just pie in the sky? Guy Brewer, Nottingham
Those who claim that encouraging algal growth in the ocean will not reduce CO2 abundance in the air might be right, but they do not know for sure. Their arguments are based on calculations using theoretical models and not, as they should be in science, on observation and experiment. Evidence from the ice cores of Antarctica and from ocean sediments suggests that algal growth was more abundant in the ice ages. We also know from Antarctic ice core data that the low temperatures of the ice age were closely associated with low CO2. It reached as low as 180 parts per million, and this requires powerful biological pumps. What better than those of the abundant ocean algae?
More… ➡
– research thanks to Robin S.
Tags: Gaia, James Lovelock