ATTUNING AND COOPERATIONG 3

 MORE WISE LESSONS

Don't fight against, but cooperate with, embrace diversity, contribute to the greater good, and dare to take risks—these are valuable lessons we can learn from nature. But there is more to learn...

For example, it is amazing how nature has no preconceptions: nothing is ruled out in advance. A tree does not say, “I don't want to be planted in that soil,” but simply “tries” it out. A flock of sheep is not afraid of a grassy field with what we consider to be a lot of ‘weeds’. Just look at how flocks of sheep are used to ‘clean’ rough ground or overgrown heathland (as in the photo of the Lüneburg Heath).
Nature starts with an ‘open mind’, as it were: ‘Let's see what's possible...’ That is a big lesson for us humans:

BE OPEN TO THE WHOLE TRUTH.

Keep your eyes, ears, mind, and especially your heart open to what is happening on a larger scale. Do not resist painful information about the state of our world. Dare to read and listen to ‘difficult’ or ‘unwelcome’ information.

Yes, know that your suffering from the state of our world stems precisely from your connection to that world! Your willingness to feel the suffering of others gives you energy and shows you what true well-being is.

In practice, this means that you don't just glance at things, but take the time to be moved by, for example, photos or stories of desperate climate refugees, of animals dying from drought, of children dying from the toxic environment in which they have to work, of the victims of a devastating tornado, of the extinction of fish in a river, and so on.

IT'S OKAY TO FEEL BAD, BUT...

In addition, consciously look for examples of good initiatives and actions, both in your immediate environment and elsewhere. Collect them for yourself, make a list, and keep them in mind! This will give you confidence and courage, inspire your creativity, make you happy, and expand your heart!

Pope Francis writes in Laudato Si' that we need both: a willingness to suffer, even to mourn with the victims, in order to truly feel their pain, fear, and sorrow — AND to be open to all the good that is also being done in so many ways and in so many places—and which you can join!

DISTINGUISH

Nature is extremely sensitive to what works and what does not work. It teaches us to carefully distinguish between ‘true’ and ‘false’.
An important example:
Like nature, be very alert to distinguish between fake news (which is always biased and often involves hidden interests) and honest, factual, and independent information, even if it is sometimes painful and discouraging. Have the courage to know the whole truth and, when appropriate, to speak it: the good and the bad, the wrong and the promising. 
That is what will really help you move forward.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

In nature, everything is truly interconnected and everything works together. A root system, for example, is an extremely sophisticated mechanism in which an incredible amount of interaction takes place.

When you feel that it is difficult to be open to the whole truth, to everything that comes your way, the encouraging and the disturbing, be aware that you are not alone! There are many more people who share your feelings, your fears, and your desires and hopes. 
Dare to share your feelings and questions with others, as well as your suggestions and your hopes. There is a good spirit, yes, God's good Spirit, which is active in so many people of good will. Therefore, do not be afraid!

DARE TO DREAM!

Does nature “dream”? Yes, certainly, in the sense of resting, waiting, allowing possibilities to mature, responding sensitively to “silent” signals...

We can learn from it, as already mentioned: Live with an open mind; believe in many possibilities. Do not believe anyone who claims to have the only and definitive answer. Such claims are signs of ignorance or (hidden) self-interest. 

On the contrary, be open and dare to dream: imagination can be a great virtue, writes Pope Francis. It can be a valuable and crucial way to serve, even a form of practical, but also spiritual and religious leadership! It is first and foremost a new way of looking, of appreciating, of thinking and empathizing, which then resonates in our behavior and our practice. It is about a coherent change of mind, heart, and action!

BELIEVE IN GRADUALITY AND PROCESSES

Nature is amazing: on the one hand, everything moves slowly (in our eyes), and on the other hand, it is very persistent and continues tenaciously and resourcefully. It does not use force, but rather all its inner strength and creativity. 
Nature works step by step, can wait for the right opportunity, but is then ready with all available resources. It works in steady, regular, and usually cyclical processes, taking all the time it needs, without restless haste but with great purpose.

The lesson for us humans is obvious: believe in gradual development, do not force anything through haste and impatience, but know what you want. Allow processes, such as the growth of insight or conviction, to unfold gradually and trust in the good result—when the situation is ripe for it.

USE ALL TALENTS

We can learn from nature that, in principle, everything that is present in a situation can play a role in a growth process. Everything that can serve the purpose is used. Biology is discovering more and more ‘smart’ methods and possibilities, particularly in the field of the extreme versatility of microorganisms.

We humans have received many gifts and should be grateful for them. We can therefore be expected not to bury those gifts, but to make them available with conviction and generosity and use them for what we have to do. Those gifts are not our private property, but have been given to us for the common good, and we discover that it is precisely this ‘selfless’ commitment that often unleashes unexpected creativity!


Dear reader, there are so many lessons we can learn from nature ! They may sound obvious to us, yet in practice it is often quite a challenge to apply them.

In the next contribution to this blog, we will give some concrete examples of how we can apply these lessons in our care for nature in a concrete and intelligent way. 
Yes, let nature teach us, help us and save us!

See you next time!

Johan Muijtjens

ATTUNING AND COOPERATING 4

 PRACTICAL LESSONS

We can learn an incredible amount from nature. If you look closely at animals and plants—and also at so-called “dead” nature—you will discover more and more wisdom. It is a wisdom that has been bearing fruit for billions of years. 

Our Earth, as a satellite of the sun, formed around 4.5 billion years ago, and the first forms of life emerged around 4.3 billion years ago. It was an amazing process, in which life and death, and then new life, something ‘better’ than the previous, emerged, thus forming the enormous chain of evolution - which is still forming today.

What can we learn from all this and use now, in our time, when the health of our natural world is so endangered, to contribute to restoring that health? A health that also has a positive impact on our human society, through less pollution, healthier and more natural products, healthier air and water, less threat to livelihoods, and so on. After all, it is the poorest, who are least to blame, who suffer most worldwide from the current multifaceted assault on our natural environment.

Nature itself has the power to teach us, heal us, and save us. It is up to us to attune ourselves to and cooperate with the healing power and intelligence of nature.

FIVE EXAMPLES

* PLANT TREES AND SHRUBS

Trees and many other green plants are excellent ‘means’ of purifying the atmosphere and soil. The green of the leaves absorbs (excess) carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through photosynthesis and, under the influence of the sun and with the presence of water, converts all of this into carbohydrates and oxygen, two of the most important ‘raw materials’ for the life of the plants themselves and of animals, and therefore also of humans, who cannot live and develop without carbohydrates and oxygen.

And this is only half the story: everything that happens underground in and around the root system has a major positive impact on the quality of the soil with all the other vegetation in and on it, and thus contributes to a relatively large extent to healing the human-caused disruption and pollution of the soil.

* COMPOSTING

This is an extremely useful and important process that nature uses everywhere and has always used in a process of recycling, so that all waste is reused as a building block.

Composting is the process by which (in principle all) organic waste, such as vegetable, fruit, and garden waste in our human situation, is broken down into compost, a rich, nutritious substance that improves the soil. This occurs through natural decomposition with the help of microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi, together with oxygen, moisture, and heat. The end product of composting is a dark, crumbly substance that is often used as a soil improver in gardens and agriculture.

It is a very good way to recycle waste and convert it into a natural fertilizer, which is both environmentally friendly and very useful for plants.
In this way, we mimic what nature has been doing for millions of years and use the life force that nature has in abundance. The forest floor is perhaps the clearest example of how nature composts.

* DEALING WITH ENERGY

Nature is, you could say, very intelligent. This is evident, among other things, from the fact that it is remarkably economical in its use of energy. However, ‘economical’ must be interpreted differently than in human terms. Nature follows the fundamental laws of thermodynamics, whereby energy is converted from one form to another, such as from heat to motion, or from chemical to electrical, or from motion to sound, or from nuclear power to heat, and so on. In this process, some heat/energy is always lost. [For those interested: see the second law of thermodynamics: Heat naturally flows from warm to cold areas and never spontaneously from cold to warm. Work can be completely converted into heat, but conversely, heat can never be completely converted into work.]

So we learn from nature to waste as little energy as possible. With every conversion (e.g., gas or electricity to heat, such as in cooking, heating water, lighting, electrical equipment, etc.), some energy is always lost. Nature uses mainly solar energy, either directly or indirectly. In fact, wind energy, for example, is also solar energy (wind caused by different temperatures in different areas). Geothermal energy is heat that comes from the earth's interior: the processes in the mantle (including volcanic activity) and / or in the earth's core.

* USE OF WATER

Water is a universal prerequisite for life for all living creatures (plants and animals, including humans). Water as a building block, as a means of transport, as a cooling mechanism (e.g. through evaporation). Globally, water continuously goes through the so-called water cycle (or hydrological cycle). This describes how water continuously moves through the atmosphere, land, oceans, and biosphere. It is a cycle in which water changes between different states (solid, liquid, and gas) and moves between different reservoirs such as rivers, lakes, oceans, the atmosphere, and underground water. This cycle is driven by solar energy and gravity.

In addition, nature is able to purify water repeatedly, or at least remove toxins and other substances that damage nature.
The best-known purification process is, of course, the evaporation of liquid water (sometimes sublimation from ice to vapor) -> which then leads to condensation -> and thus produces precipitation: purified water. In this cycle, the ‘undesirable’ components are largely left behind. Unfortunately, this does not apply to certain gaseous components that attach themselves to water molecules or vice versa (e.g., certain sulfur and nitrogen compounds) and to forms of particulate matter from traffic, industry, drought, wood burning, etc., which, as it were, ‘go along’ with the water. These are largely pollutants caused by us humans.

It is now up to us to participate in this purifying cycle and contribute to the quality of the water—in particular by limiting human-caused pollution as much as possible.

DON'T WASTE ANYTHING

One of the remarkable characteristics of nature is that it is so creative and welcoming. You could also say that nature tries to use everything as much as possible. This applies to the composting process, but also to other growth processes, in which unexpected alternative solutions are sometimes found. In the animal world, too, we see amazing solutions to certain problems, such as a lack of water, light, or heat. Nature, i.e., the different species, adapts to what is possible.
Nature does not give up and persists. And ultimately, it achieves comprehensive recycling, so that the whole is sustainable.

=========

These are five examples of how nature works, which can teach us a lot.
If we treat our environment in this way, we are fully in line with how nature itself ensures its continued quality and then life remains possible, also for us humans.

By being open to the lessons of nature, which has continued to evolve and maintain a dynamic balance for billions of years, we can trust that there will continue to be sufficient vitality in our time for the continued existence of our environment, of which we humans are not superior but an integral part.
 

Johan Muijtjens

ATTUNING AND COOPERATING 2

  Learning from ARTIS?

In the previous episode, we emphasized how important it is not to fight nature, not to use violence, but rather to work with it in a flexible and intelligent way. Nature, plants, and animals are excellent teachers.

The Amsterdam zoo, ARTIS, derives its name from the inscription above the entrance: NATURA ARTIS MAGISTRA: nature is the teacher of art, of creativity in all its forms.

In this and the next episode, we will mention some of those lessons that make us creative and effective - which we can therefore use to our great advantage.

A POSITIVE INTENTION

In all endeavors, a positive attitude and confidence in what you do (or don't do) are fundamental. Nature “never loses heart,” always starting over and trying again, continuing to grow and flourish, remaining confident that things will turn out well and beautiful, even though it doesn't know how.

We can learn from this that, in all our efforts, including in the ecological field, we do not need to have a very concrete goal in mind right away, but that a strong desire to contribute to a (more) healthy environment is sufficient. 
That is also the basis on which people can meet and work together. That is the deeper motivation. The concrete focus, what exactly you are going to do, comes after that.

This general attitude prevents you from immediately giving up when someone else who also wants to participate has different practical ideas. If you are both positive, you can consult with each other and support each other instead of competing. That is just a waste of energy.

WELCOMING DIVERSITY

This ties in with a second lesson from nature: diversity is not an obstacle but a source of (new) possibilities. The fact that someone else has a slightly different opinion or experience can be used to enrich each other, to learn from each other and ultimately to achieve even more.

So: welcome diversity and work with it together! Diversity may not always be ‘easy’. It is more challenging. Those who dare to do so generate new energy and new ideas. And that's what it's all about in the end!

PARTICIPATING IN A LARGER WHOLE.

A third lesson: consciously fitting into a larger whole.

This prevents a lot of stress: not trying to control the situation, but calmly considering what is possible in this situation. This relaxes you, overcomes frustrations, and gives you confidence.

We don't have to save the whole world (according to our own understanding). We can do our part, in the situation we find ourselves in, based on the realization that everything is truly connected. A so-called “small” action often has a much broader effect than we suspect. You can happily do your part because you know that you are part of a much larger whole, in which countless others are also doing their part from their own situation.

And then it turns out that one plus one is not two, but three: cooperation gives extra energy. This is called synergy: the extra fruitfulness of positive interaction. You stimulate each other to be creative, and sometimes unexpected things come about—and you contribute more to the greater whole than you first thought possible.

HAVING CONFIDENCE AND TAKING RISKS 

When you enjoy working with others within that much larger plan of nature, which wants nothing more than health and healing, you grow in confidence and courage. 

Confidence and courage are not something vague, just a kind of idea or feeling. Confidence and courage are forms of action. It is actively participating and also daring to take risks, even when success is not guaranteed.

That is certainly a challenge, because we humans want to see the immediate effect of what we do. Trust always works in the longer term. Courage opens up new possibilities. And even though it sounds contradictory, that inner freedom, that ability to let go of immediately visible results, of not knowing for sure, is precisely the true source of creativity and progress! Who dares wins. Those who have confidence and dare to take risks discover that there is more and even much more possible.

Likewise: Dare to take the initiative yourself. Or dare to trust the creativity of others. Dare to trust their suggestions and ideas. Go along with others, even if it wasn't your idea... Together you will work wonders!

To be continued!

Johan Muijtjens

 

ALIGNING AND COOPERATING 1

 

ALIGNING OURSELVES WITH AND WORKING TOGETHER WITH NATURE

We all know it by now:
Our planet is in danger. It is a creeping danger, a slowly advancing decline. It is not like Covid-19: something that no one expected and that no one could ignore. No one could remain passive. All kinds of painful measures were accepted and implemented. We realized: Our lives are in danger.

Climate change, global warming, droughts, storms, pollution of water, soil, and air, acidification of the oceans, rising sea levels and flooding, the extinction of many species of plants and animals...  all of this is happening continuously, but gradually, not suddenly from one day to the next. The situation is worsening, slowly but steadily.

What should we do? Fight? Fight against nature?

* Many people think they can adapt to these gradual changes. It won't be that bad.
* Others have great confidence in the possibilities of (new) technologies. They can leave the responsibility to the scientists and technicians—and continue to live as they are accustomed to.
* Still others think: If we are smart enough, we can combat the disasters, we can correct nature, we can win the war against all these disturbing issues. They think in terms of war, fighting, trying to be or become the leader.

This belligerent attitude permeates all areas of our society. Even though we know that war causes more war, violence causes more violence, we still believe, or at least pretend to believe, that war, power, intellect, exerting pressure, etc. are the only (or at least the fastest and most “effective”) ways to solve problems.

What we can see, but often do not want to see, is that this belligerent approach is the end of healthy growth, that it narrows our minds and kills our creativity. In short, it makes things worse instead of better. We lose sight of the bigger picture, we forget that everything is deeply interconnected, we isolate a particular problem and ‘forget’ what the deeper causes might be. Instead of paying attention to the real cause or causes, we fight the symptoms and think we have done something meaningful.

All of this also applies to some measures, laws, and regulations relating to our environment and climate. We do not take enough time or make enough effort to think about the deeper causes of a problem, but simply do some “practical” things without keeping the big and complex reality in mind. And we do not realize enough that we are in fact being counterproductive...

Don't fight, but align and collaborate!

However, a completely different approach is possible: don't fight against, but align with and cooperate with. Don't fight against nature, but use the wisdom of nature and work respectfully with nature's own ability to heal the situation; treat nature with care, patience, awareness, and focus, and adapt to the character and possibilities of nature itself. Nature has an enormous self-healing capacity, as described in a previous contribution. You could say that nature really wants to be balanced and healthy. Nature does not pollute, wastes nothing, is constantly recycling, and continues to develop into more varied and beautiful forms, both in the world of plants and animals.

Work with the intelligence of nature.

It is this great, beautiful, and wonderful “wisdom” and “intelligence” of all of nature that the Creator of everything has entrusted to us humans. Let us not forget that we humans are also part of that same nature. We are not ‘above’ nature but are part of it, albeit with a special task and responsibility, but not as its “boss.”

If there are problems in our ecosystems, the best way to remedy them is to consciously work together with the self-healing power that is present everywhere.
I would like to share some of this wisdom with you, dear reader, and I hope it will give you extra joy, hope, and confidence in your commitment to a healthier earth, OUR earth, our HOME, as Pope Francis calls it in his famous encyclical Laudato Si'.

To be continued.

Johan Muijtjens

THE GAIA THEORY

Our Earth: One Self-Regulating Life System

The GAIA theory is a scientific theory that states that the Earth and all its biological, geological, atmospheric, and chemical components work together as one self-regulating system. This idea was introduced as a hypothesis in the 1970s by British scientist James Lovelock, with contributions from American microbiologist Lynn Margulis.

James Lovelock says about this:
"The Earth could be alive, not as a sentient goddess pursuing a goal and with a visionary outlook, but alive like a tree, existing in silence, never moving or changing place, but moving with the wind, communicating endlessly with the sunlight and the soil. It needs sunlight, water, and nutrients to grow and change. However, all this happens so unnoticed that the old oak tree in the meadow is the same to me as it was when I played under it as a child."

There has been a lot of understandable criticism of this theory (then still a hypothesis), but particularly in the 21st century, the GAIA theory has been further developed and reevaluated in light of climate change and environmental issues, all of which point to and can only be understood by assuming a total interaction, in which everything is connected to everything else (and therefore at all levels) and reacts to each other.

Many insights have grown in recent decades through newly developing sciences, such as earth system science, biogeochemistry, and systems ecology. 
Most scientists do not see the theory as a literal description of a “living” Earth, but rather as a useful framework for (increasingly) understanding the interactions between living organisms and their environment—leaving metaphysical and spiritual considerations aside.
We hope to return to these latter issues in a future blog, as I find them particularly fascinating, but they are beyond the scope of this post.
Let's start with some key questions:

First of all: What are LIVING BEINGS?

These can be described as: organized genetic units that undergo the following six processes: metabolism, reproduction, growth, and evolution, forming a self-functioning unit and at the same time being in continuous interaction with their environment. 

In other words: a self-existing system that maintains itself, that grows and develops, and that does so in interaction with its “living” and “dead” environment.

This description can be applied at all levels, from the smallest single-celled creatures to the most impressive plants and animals, including humans. 

CO-EVOLUTION

The Gaia hypothesis suggests that organisms co-evolve (simultaneously) with their environment. In other words, living organisms influence the non-living (abiotic) environment, and that environment in turn influences living organisms. They do not just co-exist, but interact, constantly influencing each other, working together, as it were. - That's what we can imagine, without thinking too deeply.

But it becomes realy complex when we look at it in the context of the entire geological and biological history of the Earth. At this point, Lovelock demonstrated how, over millions of years, bacteria that developed in a very hot and acidic environment, which ‘lived’ on sulfur compounds and produced methane gas,

gradually developed into other microorganisms (cyanobacteria), organisms that thrived in more moderate conditions and, with the help of carbon dioxide and water, now produced oxygen (instead of methane) – which ultimately resulted in a completely different atmosphere (with at least 20% oxygen) in which more complex life became possible and ultimately flourished: the very rich plant and animal life as we know it today.

AS A WHOLE?

That is a third important element in the hypothesis/theory: not only that there are living beings or that they develop together with their inorganic environment, but that this applies to our planet as a whole with all its very different elements.  Could you really call our Earth a single living being? Is everything organic and inorganic really connected in some way, and does it all contribute to life in all its dimensions?

Of course, we cannot check this piece by piece on our Earth.
But we can establish that there are literally global (i.e., affecting the entire globe) processes taking place, which, wonderfully enough, all contribute to optimal conditions for (higher forms of) life—of which we humans are perhaps one of the highest developments.

GLOBAL PROCESSES.

There are many different ways to view and determine this.
Here we select a few phenomena, all of which point in the same direction of coherence and interaction, all aimed at creating optimal conditions for life.

METEOROLOGY
Perhaps the first and most striking thing is what meteorology shows us: how the weather system truly encompasses the entire Earth and thus influences everything. The Earth is clearly one large coherent mechanism, in which the atmosphere, (large) water masses, and (large) land masses interact continuously in various ways (in terms of temperature, humidity, matter, etc.). The photo of the Earth, taken during a moon flight, clearly shows how winds, hurricanes, (sea) currents, lee areas, and all kinds of weather conditions interact around our globe.

Within and 'beneath' all these wheater phenomena many more processes are taking place. We will describe a few of these, mainly to clarify and confirm the overall picture, not to exhaustively demonstrate or prove everything.

After meteorology, we will discuss topics such as climate regulation, temperature regulation, the composition of the atmosphere, and the salinity of the seas. These are all crucial issues that together create the most optimal conditions for biological life—and which are also brought about by biological life. That is precisely what is so intriguing about the Gaia hypothesis/theory!

BIOLOGICAL?

Meteorology seems to be all about "ordinary matter" (air, water, sand, rock, heat, cold, etc.). But are living beings, the whole biosphere of the earth, also connected to each other and to so-called non-living matter? Let's dig deeper into this...

KEY IDEAS

As already mentioned, the core of the GAIA theory is that the earth functions as a single, living organism that maintains its own balance. This means that biological processes and non-living elements (such as oceans, the atmosphere, and rocks) work together to create a stable environment that supports life and contributes to the habitability and livability of the earth. This requires a lot. We mention here five factors:

1. Climate regulation: Microorganisms and plants influence the oxigen and carbondioxide levels in the atmosphere, which in turn influences the climate.

2. Temperature stabilization: Reflection of sunlight by clouds and large ice masses contributes greatly to stable temperatures. This (decreasing) albedo effect is currently a matter of great concern.

3. Presence of liquid water. Closely related to the previous is the preservation of liquid water in the hydrosphere (everything related to water): Liquid water is probably the most important element of and for life at all levels, from the simplest cells to the most highly developed organisms (plants and animals, including humans).

4. Stable salinity of seawater, which enables and sustains the continued life of marine animals.

5. Oxygen balance: The oxygen content in the atmosphere remains within a range suitable for life, thanks to photosynthesis by plants, which absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.

CLIMATE REGULATION AND TEMPERATURE STABILITY

The energy of the sun, and therefore also the radiation reaching the earth, has increased by 25 to 30 percent since the sun was formed. However, the entire earth system has adapted well to this and has not become “overheated.” Fluctuating between higher and lower limits, the whole has remained “habitable.”

    Unfortunately, after millions of years of nature maintaining its own balance, we have now reached a point (especially in the last two centuries) where humans are

producing excessive amounts of carbon dioxide and releasing methane from the earth's crust (e.g. thawing permafrost  because of global warming), and nature is no longer able to keep up. Hence all the actions now being taken to reduce carbon dioxide production and develop procedures to use new ‘inexhaustible’ and non-polluting forms energy sources, such as wind, water, sunlight, and geothermal energy: the so-called energy transition. 

SALINITY OF THE OCEANS

The salinity of water, in which virtually all life has developed and continues to develop, is crucially important for biological life. It is therefore striking that the salinity of the oceans has remained constant for hundreds of millions of years, at around 3.5%.

This is astonishing, because ‘salt’ is constantly being added, for example through the erosion or weathering of mountains, causing more and more ‘salt’ to enter the seas via rivers. Yet the salt content of the oceans remains roughly the same.
It has been discovered that there are several (micro)organisms that react to an increase or decrease in salt content and (ingeniously) correct this. It is also known that (coral) reefs absorb salt from their environment and release it again according to the ‘need’ for their own viability and that of other animal and plant organisms.
Lagoons (into which the sea ‘overflows’ from time to time) also play a role, because seawater stands still and evaporates there, causing the salt to precipitate on the spot and thus be extracted from the ocean. 
In this way, the conditions for a well-functioning ecosystem are apparently maintained.

OXYGEN CONTENT OF THE ATMOSPHERE

Oxygen molecule

There is also a stabilizing mechanism that keeps the oxygen content in the atmosphere constant. For millions of years, this content has remained stable at around 20 percent, with 79 percent nitrogen and small amounts of other gaseous components such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen oxides, and the noble gas argon.Due to various forms of oxidation, i.e. reactions with oxygen, such as rusting, forest fires, etc., one would expect this oxygen content to decrease. But that is not the case. Mainly through the process of photosynthesis in green plants (see a previous contribution), nature has been adjusting ‘as needed’ for millions of years, allowing all animal life in particular to flourish. For at least a billion years, the oxygen content has remained essentially the same, albeit with some fluctuations.

FINALLY

As a preliminary conclusion, we can say, perhaps with surprise, that after all the turbulence of the long process that created stars, clusters, spiral nebulae, milky ways, the (our) sun, and finally the planets around that sun, over a period of about 8 billion years, one planet has emerged on which—again, after a great deal of turbulence on that planet itself—a beautifully stabilized state has emerged. A state in which biological life has emerged and developed in unimaginable richness and beauty, and in which that life continues to thrive, even through several phases of mass extinction (the extinction of life forms).

Perhaps even more amazingly, it has been discovered that ‘life’ is not simply passive, but constantly plays an active and purposeful role in this entire balanced process, a phenomenon known as co-evolution. Biological ‘partners’ are constantly involved in all the stabilisation processes described above (temperature, salinity and oxygen content). It is one large dynamic system in which the biotic and abiotic continuously work together.
Apparently, as numerous scientists and admirers of nature have observed, the entire creation has been designed for life from the beginning; it is biophilic, life-loving.
For those who experience life and death, and who does not? Those who live through the ‘harshness’ of nature, this life-loving character is not an obvious conclusion. It gives many of us reason to investigate further and to think more deeply about all this.... The paradox of life: birth - growth - flourishing - fertility - decrease - death - new beginning ...

Johan Muijtjens
July 20215