THE BATTLE STILL CONTINUES
The battle, namely, whether our Earth is largely 'dead' and can be used at will—or whether it is essentially one large living entity, to be treated with respect and care. Is the Earth a huge, lifeless sphere of iron, nickel, carbon, tin, silicon, etc., with a very thin layer of living matter, with a few interconnected, large holes of water, and covered by a slightly thicker layer of gas: nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and more—or is it more? Why?
We all know by now that this isn't a theoretical question. The concerns of many about the abuse of our Earth revolve primarily around this: simply a utility object or a kind of "partner" for us humans? Also living? Also having rights? Completely interconnected?
Interestingly, even before that report appeared, a hypothesis was put forward from a completely different perspective, namely (micro)biology, that would significantly influence our view of the Earth. Initially, it was heavily criticized, but after a few decades, it was and is increasingly recognized as correct and even highly valuable: the so-called GAIA theory.
THE GAIA THEORY
The GAIA theory is a scientific theory that posits that the Earth and all its biological, geological, atmospheric, and chemical components work together as a single, self-regulating system. This idea was introduced in the 1970s by the British scientist James Lovelock, with contributions from the American microbiologist Lynn Margulis.
James Lovelock states: "The Earth could be alive, not like a sensitive goddess pursuing a purpose and possessing a vision, but alive like a tree, existing in silence, never moving or shifting, yet flowing with the wind, endlessly communicating with sunlight and the soil. It needs sunlight, water, and nutrients to grow and change. Yet 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 considerable understandable criticism of this theory (initially still as a hypothesis), but especially in the 21st century, the GAIA theory has been further developed and has gained even greater appreciation in light of climate change and environmental issues, all of which point to—and can only truly be understood by—assuming a total interaction, in which everything (and therefore at all levels) is interconnected and interacts with everything else.
[A side note: the choice of the name 'GAIA' was perhaps somewhat unfortunate, as it is the name of the Roman goddess of the earth, leading one to think that the earth is 'feminine' or has divine qualities. Simply calling it EARTH is actually quite beautiful.]
Many insights have grown in recent decades, particularly through the emerging sciences, such as Earth system science, biogeochemistry, and systems ecology. Most scientists don't view 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. It revolves around fundamental questions, such as:
* What is (biological) life, and what constitutes a living being?
* How did that life arise during the evolution of our Earth?
* Is our Earth truly a single, coherent whole?
* And if so: Is there mutual influence between the living and the non-living?
First of all: What are LIVING BEINGS?
EVOLUTION of life and CO-EVOLUTION
The evolution of life itself from inorganic matter has remained a great mystery until now. This utterly fascinating question has inspired an incredible amount of research and has yielded various theories, but remains a mystery, even though this "leap" has been reduced to very small steps.
But how, for example, a highly complex DNA molecule came into being remains a mystery.
The Gaia hypothesis, based on the existence of life, now suggests that organisms co-evolve with their environment. That is, living organisms influence the non-living (a-biotic) environment, and that environment, in turn, influences living organisms. They don't just co-exist, so to speak, but are interactive, constantly influencing each other, thus working together. We can imagine this to some extent.
But it becomes more complex when you consider the course of Earth's geological and biological history. At this point, Lovelock demonstrated how, over millions of years, bacteria, which developed in a very warm and acidic environment, "lived" on sulfur compounds and produced the gas methane, gradually evolved into other microorganisms that thrived in more temperate conditions and, with the help of carbon dioxide, now produced oxygen (instead of methane). This ultimately resulted in a completely different atmosphere on Earth (with much more oxygen) in which more complex life became possible and which ultimately thrived to such an extent that plant and animal life could develop in the incredible richness we know today.
EVERYTHING AS ONE WHOLE ?
That is a third important element in the hypothesis/theory: not only that it concerns living beings, here and there, or that these develop together with their inorganic environment, but that this applies to our planet as a whole. The entire planet in all its diversity. Could you truly call our Earth a single living being? Is all organic and inorganic matter truly interconnected in some way, and does it all contribute to life in all its dimensions?
Of course, we can't verify this piece by piece on our planet. But we can establish that processes are occurring literally globally (i.e., across the globe), all of which, miraculously, contribute to optimal conditions for (higher forms of) life—of which we humans are perhaps the highest development to date.
GLOBAL PROCESSES
This can be viewed and determined in many different ways.
Here, we choose a few phenomena that all point in the same direction of coherence and interplay, all aimed at creating optimal conditions for life.
Perhaps the first and most striking aspect is what meteorology reveals: how the weather system truly encompasses the entire Earth and therefore influences everything. Within and beneath this system, many more processes take place. We will describe a few of these processes, primarily to clarify and confirm the overall picture, not to exhaustively demonstrate or prove everything. We will look at climate regulation and temperature stabilization, the importance of liquid water, the composition of the atmosphere, and the salinity of the seas. These are some of the crucial factors that create the optimal conditions for biological life—and which, conversely, are partly brought about by biological life. This reciprocity is precisely what is intriguing about the Gaia theory!
METEOROLOGY
Incidentally: Meteorologically, everything still seems to be related to ordinary matter: it's about air, water, sand, rock, heat, and cold. But what about the interplay with living beings? For that, we need to look a little deeper, both literally and figuratively.
CORE IDEAS
The core of the GAIA theory is, as already mentioned, that the Earth functions as a single living organism that maintains its own equilibrium. 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 viability of Earth. Here are five factors:
1. Climate regulation: Microorganisms, the absorption capacity of the oceans, and the absorption by plants influence CO2 levels in the atmosphere, which in turn has a major impact on climate.
2. Temperature stabilization: Reflection of sunlight by clouds and large ice masses contributes significantly to stable temperatures. This so-called albedo effect is currently a major concern because it is gradually decreasing due to the melting of large ice masses.
3. The preservation of liquid water in the hydrosphere (everything related to water). Liquid water in particular is probably the most important element of and for life, at all levels, from the simplest cells to the most highly developed organisms.
4. Stable salt content (salinity) of seawater, which makes and maintains the life of marine animals possible.
5. Oxygen balance: The oxygen level in the atmosphere remains within a range suitable for (animal) life, thanks to photosynthesis by plants, which absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
We will elaborate a bit on these five wonderful natural balances here.
CLIMATE REGULATION AND TEMPERATURE STABILITY
The sun's energy, and therefore its radiation to Earth, has increased by 25 to 30 percent since the sun formed. However, the entire Earth system (which cosmologically formed shortly after the sun) has adapted well to this and has not become "overheated." Fluctuating between higher and lower limits, it has remained "habitable."
Unfortunately, after all those millions of years that nature has maintained its balance, we have now reached a time (especially in the last two centuries) where we humans, by producing copious amounts of carbon dioxide and releasing methane from the Earth's crust (via global warming), have reached a situation where nature can no longer keep up. Hence all the current actions to reduce carbon dioxide production and develop procedures to utilize "inexhaustible" and non-polluting energy sources, such as wind, water, sunlight, and geothermal energy: the so-called energy transition.
SALTINESS OF THE OCEANS
For biological life, the salinity of the water, in which virtually all life has developed and continues to develop, is crucial. 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 erosion or the weathering of mountains (chemical breakdown processes), which brings more and more "salt" into the seas via the rivers. Yet, the salt content of the oceans has remained broadly consistent. It has been discovered that several (micro)organisms respond to increasing or decreasing salinity and (ingeniously) correct it. Coral reefs are also known to absorb salt from their surroundings and release it as needed for their own survival and that of other animal and plant organisms around. Lagoons, for example (where the sea occasionally overflows), also play a role, because seawater stagnates and evaporates there, and the salt precipitates on site, thus being extracted from the ocean. In these ways, the conditions for a well-functioning ecosystem are apparently maintained.
ATMOSPHERIC OXYGEN CONTENT
There is also a stabilizing mechanism that keeps the oxygen content in the atmosphere constant. This content has been stable at approximately 20 percent for many millions of years. In addition, our "air" contains 79 percent nitrogen, along with small amounts of other gaseous components such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, water vapor, and the noble gas argon.
One would expect that this oxygen content would decrease due to various forms of oxidation, i.e., reactions with oxygen, such as the rusting of metal objects, forest fires, and the like. But that's not happening. Primarily through the process of photosynthesis in green plants, which releases oxygen. Nature continually adjusts to meet needs—and has done so for many millions of years, allowing all animal life, in particular, to flourish. For at least a billion years, the oxygen level has fluctuated somewhat, but remained essentially constant.
FINALLY
It may surprise us that, after all the turbulence in the long process that gave rise to stars, spiral nebulae, our sun, and finally the planets around it, there is one planet on which—once again, after a great deal of initial turbulence—a beautifully stabilized state has emerged.
A state in which biological life has emerged and developed in an unimaginable richness and beauty, and in which that life continues to creatively progress, even through several phases of extinction (the extinction of life forms). Perhaps even more astonishingly, it has been discovered that "life" is not "passive," but constantly and actively participates in this entire balanced development process, which (as described earlier) is called co-evolution.
In all the stabilization processes described above (climate, temperature, liquid water, salinity, and oxygen levels), biological "partners" are constantly involved. It is one large dynamic system, in which the biotic and the a-biotic continuously collaborate. And then we haven't even mentioned all those wondrous balances in the world of the 'larger' plants and animals, in which the material (i.e., the a-biotic) is always fully integrated.
Apparently, all of creation has been designed for life from the beginning. The entire universe, in its possibilities and its ultimate destiny, is biophilic, life-loving. We don't immediately see this in the stars and galaxies, but, after a very long and eventful development, it is now abundantly clear on our dear EARTH – once lovingly called GAIA ...
The battle for the 'identity' of our EARTH continues, but let us at least grow in the realization that GAIA deserves much more respect and care !
Johan Muijtjens
March 2026
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