Gaia Girls: Enter the Earth (Book Review)

Recently GGG creator and my very good friend Vicky kindly lent me a book titled ‘Gaia Girls: Enter the Earth’. Although the book is aimed at young people, I believe that is just as appealing and informative for adults too.

The book is written by Lee Welles and is the first of a four part series. Enter the Earth focuses on a young girl called Elizabeth who lives on an organic farm with her parents. However one day her life is changed forever when an Otter who introduces herself as Gaia forms a friendship with Elizabeth and provides her with powers to connect to the earth.

The story book is a magical adventure with a positive outcome, thus definitely appealing to people of all ages. I certainly recommend it.

The Gaia Theory

I must admit that before reading Enter the Earth I was not familiar with the Gaia theory. Thus hating to be ignorant I decided to look into it further and borrowed a book from the Library called ‘Gaia in Action: Science of the Living Earth’. I have yet to finish reading this book (as it is quite scientifically detailed and I have other studying to do) however what I have read so far is fascinating.

What I was amazed to discover is that my own personal beliefs are quite similar to the theory, i.e. considering and treating the Earth as a Living organism.

To enlighten you on my personal beliefs they do consist of a small element of Paganism however I have never categorised myself as ‘Pagan’, this is because I do not believe in all of the principles behind it (I am not ‘religious’ at all, however GGG is not an appropriate place to discuss any aspect of religion or beliefs so I will stop now)

Swiftly going back to Gaia, the thesis is actually classified as controversial and many scientists have strongly criticised it. As whilst it is similar to Darwinism in terms of being a theory of evolution, it differs as “Gaia holds that life forms have co-evolved with their environment in such a way that environmental conditions are held steady in the face of a continual flux of energy and matter” ¹

The theory was scientifically formulated in the 1960s by the independent research scientist Dr James Lovelock.

He defined Gaia as ”a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet”. ²

The theory was criticized by many scientists especially arguing against the idea of classifying Earth as a living organism as the planet has not or is it able to reproduce as all other living organisms do.  However since the introduction of the Gaia theory in the 60’s, the theory has been developed by other scientists including Lynn Margulis.

In a book titled ‘The Symbiotic Planet’, Margulis stated that “Gaia is not an organism, but an emergent property of interaction among organisms. She defined Gaia the series of interacting ecosystems that compose a single huge ecosystem at the Earth’s surface” ².  She concluded that it was best to regard the Earths surface as alive.

James Lovelock, the creator of the theory has also taken it further and last year published a book titled ‘The Revenge of Gaia’. Where he argues that “the lack of respect humans have had for Gaia, through the damage done to rainforests and the reduction in planetary biodiversity, is testing Gaia’s capacity to minimize the effects of the addition of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere” ²

I have not actually read James Lovelock’s ‘Revenge of Gaia’, however I plan to do so as it sounds a good read.

As a newcomer to the theory I feel that I really do need to explore it further before I make up my mind as to whether I believe in all its principles.

However in the mean time I would be very interested to hear what your thoughts on the theory are.

Information Sources:

1) Gaia in Action: Science of the Living Earth edited by Peter Bunyard

2) Wikipedia Online Encyclopaedia: Gaia Hypothesis Article