I have often stated my support for the Gaia hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis, today also commonly referred to as Gaia theory, proposes that organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a self-regulating, complex system that contributes to maintaining the conditions for life on the planet. The hypothesis was begun in 1965 by chemist James Lovelock and co-developed with microbiologist Lynn Margulis in the 1970s. The first paper co-authored by Lovelock and Margulis, which was the first significant published presentation of the hypothesis (1974), stated, “This paper examines the hypothesis that the total ensemble of living organisms which constitute the biosphere can act as a single entity to regulate the chemical composition, surface pH and possibly also climate.” The term "Gaia" itself was described as follows in this early paper, “Hence forward the word Gaia will be used to describe the biosphere and all of those parts of the Earth with which it actively interacts,” but it was not until later in the following decade, after considerable criticism from neo-Darwinian biologists, that it was made clear that the self-regulation arising from this totality was an emergent property of the whole system (today commonly referred to as the 'Earth System') and not stemming from organisms alone.
My published work supporting this idea is based on the model of an abstract organism created by
Robert Rosen (theoretical biologist)
Rosen's abstract relational biology approach focuses on a definition of living organisms, and all complex systems, in terms of their internal organization as open systems that cannot be reduced to their interacting components because of the multiple relations between metabolic, replication and repair components that govern the organism's complex biodynamics.
He deliberately chose the `simplest' graphs and categories for his representations of Metabolism-Repair Systems in small categories of sets endowed only with the discrete topology of sets, envisaging this choice as the most general and less restrictive.
It is not difficult to map processes in the Earth system onto Rosen's metabolism repair system and thereby identify the Earth system as an "organism" in this context. Read on below for why the earth system's ability to repair itself is something we should be aware of.
This article from the Washington Post by Chris Mooney is an example of how the Earth's response to Global Warming is a form of self organization that actually appears to be "punishing" one of the worst sources of that warming: Global warming is now slowing down the circulation of the oceans — with potentially dire consequences
So in sum: It appears that we’ve just seen yet another surprise from the climate system — and yet another process, like the melting of Antarctica, that seems to be happening faster than previously expected. And indeed, much like with that melting, the upshot if the trend continues is an especially bad sea level rise for the United States — the country more responsible than any other on Earth for the global warming that we’re currently experiencing.
The ironic result of this adjustment in the Earth System is not really very funny. It is clear that the way the complex physical events interact is both unpredictable and also in no way directed at the human species causing them. On the other hand a broader view of the earth system's response can actually suggest that the human cause will eventually be eliminated.
Most of the most recent adjustments to predictions about what is coming are suggesting that the human species is in trouble. Human activity is self limiting in a very real way. The inability of the human species to adapt its intelligence in a way that switches its activity from a very potent destructive force to one that recognizes the fragility of the conditions that sustain it is a real problem for its long term survival and also a way the earth system will stop the continuing attack.
The science here is clear and the situational drama is not part of it. However our minds do more than science and poetic irony is one of the things we can appreciate, hence the snarky title for this diary.
Meanwhile I keep saying: We really do not need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.