Gaia And the Life in the mainstream Flashcards
What is Gaia ?
The idea of life makes a planet habitable and once it’s habitable maintains the planets overall environment to make it fit for life . From the moment life first appeared on Earth it has worked hard to make earth a comfortable place to live
The idea that all living and non living components on earth work together to promote life
James Lovelock is the founder of these books
Talk about the CLAW hypothesis
Increase in temperature / sunlight means ocean warms which means enhanced phytoplankton growth, this enhances DMS production ( sulfur compounds) -> elevated DMS concentration in the atmosphere -> this is converted into SO2 do elevated SO2 concentration and then you get more cloud condensation nuclei and so solar radiation is bounced back out of the atmosphere ( essentially increased cloud cover so the earth doesn’t overheat)
CLAW negative feedback loop
What is the Anti-CLAW hypothesis?
Decreased Earth albedo less sunlight reflected ( initially as a staring point) -> ocean warms but ocean been warmed so much you get decreased phytoplankton Growth -> decreased DMS production -> decreased DMS concentration in the atmosphere -> decreased SO2 concentration -> fewer cloud condensation nuclei -> decreased in cloud cover and more sunshine on oceans
You get a positive feedback loop. So anthropogenic activities changed from negative to positive
So again what is the Gaia theory and give the Daisyworld parable
The Gaia theory -> Earth’s biota and it’s surface environment ( atmosphere, oceans etc) form a self- regulating system that keeps the planet in a habitable state
Daisyworld is a parable, invented to demonstrate that such self- regulation can occur without teleology ( conscious planning on the part of unconscious organisms or having a reason)
