Gaia

gaia gáía English 2018 April 22 thumb|Gaia (en Q2) from a distance thumb|Gaia (en Q93172) Etymology Borrowed from en grc Γαῖᾰ Gaea, the Earth personified as a goddess, from grc γαῖᾰ the Earth, probably related to grc γῆ earth, land; country. Sense 1 was coined by the British scientist, environmentalist, and futurist James Lovelock (1919–2022) in his book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979), at the suggestion of the British novelist, playwright, and poet William Golding (1911–1993): see the quotation. Pronunciation (Gaia hypothesis) en /ˈɡaɪə/ RP,GA (Goddess of the Earth) en /ˈɡeɪə/ /ˈɡaɪə/ RP,GA en en-us-Gaia.ogg GA en aɪə eɪə 2 Proper noun en Q2 en ecology The ecosystem of the Earth regarded as a self-regulating superorganism. from 20th c. en Mother Earth<id:Q2> en J[ames] E[phraim] Lovelock Introductory Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth Oxford w:Oxford University Press 1979 1 and 11 https://archive.org/stream/gaianewlookatlif00loverich#page/n16/mode/1up 978-0-19-217665-3 [page 1] As I write, two Viking spacecraft are circling our fellow planet Mars, awaiting landfall instructions from the Earth. Their mission is to search for life, or evidence of life, now or long ago. This book is also about a search for life, and the quest for Gaia is an attempt to find the largest living creature on Earth. [I]f Gaia does exist, then we may find ourselves and all other living things to be parts and partners of a vast being who in her entirety has the power to maintain our planet as a fit and comfortable habitat for life. [page 11] We have since 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. en 1980 July James E. Lovelock Living Planet Earth Omni (magazine) Omni https://archive.org/details/sim_omni_1980-07_2_10/ 2 10 0149-8711 440821199 124 https://archive.org/details/sim_omni_1980-07_2_10/page/124/ 3 If we are all—from the lowliest microorganism to the largest whale—a part of Gaia, then we are all potentially important to its well-being. Therefore, the ecologists who deplore the elimination of a species are not merely appealing to our sentiment. They are warning us, often without knowing it, about a blind and dangerous tinkering with the mechanism of the world. It is not enough just to regret the extinction of a whale, or even of the smallpox virus. When we delete one of these from Gaia's catalog, we may have destroyed part of ourselves. We are also a part of Gaia. en David Hoffmann The Holistic Approach The Holistic Herbal: A Herbal Celebrating the Wholeness of Life Findhorn, Moray, Scotland Findhorn 1983 978-0-905249-60-5 Holistic Herbal: A Safe and Practical Guide to Making and Using Herbal Remedies 3rd London Thorsons, HarperCollins Publishers 2002 13 https://books.google.com/books?id=blgyz9XQN3oC&pg=PA13 978-0-00-714541-6 In fact Planet Earth can be seen as an active participant in the creation of its own story, a living being now given the name Gaia, a name from Greek mythology for the goddess of earth. The very ability to perceive of the earth as living, as Gaia, is an indication of the expansion of consciousness that humanity as a whole is experiencing. en w:Lynn Margulis Jim Lovelock’s Gaia Peter Bunyard; w:Edward Goldsmith Gaia, the Thesis, the Mechanisms and the Implications: Proceedings of the First Annual Camelford Conference on the Implications of the Gaia Hypothesis, held on 21–24th October 1987 in Cornwall Camelford, Cornwall Wadebridge Ecological Centre 1988 50 978-0-9504111-8-7 Having recognised the Gaian phenomenon I would like to explain where I think Gaia comes from and ask for how long this Gaia phenomenon has persisted on the surface of the Earth. And then I would like to raise some of the objections to the Gaia hypothesis. To my knowledge the Gaia hypothesis has never been discussed in polite scientific society by sympathetic scientists; this is an all time first. en http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/sep/13/society The importance of being wrong 2003-09-13 2021-05-19 Nicholas Lezard The Guardian Meanwhile, mankind is getting on with the business of turning the Earth barren; sooner or later, but more likely sooner, Gaia will shrug us off and the Earth will carry on as if we had never been. https://web.archive.org/web/20261019131350/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/sep/13/society 19 October 2026 en https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/james-lovelock-the-prophet-192646/ James Lovelock, the Prophet 2007-11-01 Jeff Goodell Rolling Stone At first, Lovelock didn’t view global warming as an urgent threat to the planet. “Gaia is a tough bitch,” he often said, borrowing a phrase coined by a colleague. But a few years ago, alarmed by rapidly melting ice in the Arctic and other climate-related changes, Lovelock became convinced that Gaia’s autopilot system– the giant, inexpressibly subtle network of positive and negative feedbacks that keeps the Earth’s climate in balance –is seriously out of whack, derailed by pollution and deforestation. https://web.archive.org/web/20261006195830/https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/james-lovelock-the-prophet-192646/ 6 October 2026 en Q93172 en Greek goddess A Greek goddess, the personification of the earth, and one of the primordial deities from whom all the others descend. en W[illiam] E[wart] Gladstone Ilios. The Trojans Compared and Contrasted with the Greeks. Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age. [...] In Three Volumes Oxford At the University Press 1858 III 153 https://books.google.com/books?id=MCo-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA153 813305724 While investigating the Greek mythology, we have found reason to suppose that Juno, Ceres, and Gaia are but three different forms of the same original tradition of a divine feminine: of whom Ceres is the Pelasgian copy, Juno the vivid and powerful Hellenic development, and Gaia the original skeleton, retaining nothing of the old character, but having acquired the function of gaol-keeper for perjurors when sent to the other world. en Q4962600 en female inspired by Mother Earth. Derived terms en Gaia hypothesis Gaia Sausage Gaia-Enceladus gaiahuasca gaiaism Gaian Gaianism Translations Greek goddess Bulgarian: bg Гая f Catalan: ca Gea f Cherokee: chr ᎦᏯ Chinese: Cantonese: yue 蓋亞 Mandarin: cmn 蓋亞 Gàiyà, cmn 該亞 Gāiyà Wu: wuu 盖娅 Czech: cs Gaia f, cs Gé f Danish: da Gaia Dutch: nl Gaia f Esperanto: eo Geo, eo Gajo Finnish: fi Gaia French: fr Gaïa f, fr Gê f German: de Gaia f, de Gäa f Greek: el Γαία f Ancient Greek: grc Γαῖα f Greenlandic: kl Gaja Hebrew: he גאיה f Gáya Hungarian: hu Gaia Inuktitut: iu ᒑᔭ Irish: ga Gaia f, ga Gáia f Italian: it Gaia f Japanese: ja ガイア Gaia Kazakh: kk Гея Korean: ko ^가이아 Macedonian: mk Геја f Norwegian: Bokmål: nb Gaia f Nynorsk: nn Gaia f Polish: pl Gaja f Portuguese: pt Gaia f Romanian: ro Gaia f Russian: ru Ге́я f Serbo-Croatian: sh Geja f, sh Геја f Slovene: sl Gája f, sl Géa f Spanish: es Gea f Swedish: sv Gaia Thai: th ไกอา Ukrainian: uk Ге́я f, uk Га́йя f the ecosystem of the Earth regarded as a self-regulating organism Arabic: ar غَايَا Bengali: bn গাইয়া Bulgarian: bg Chinese: Mandarin: cmn 蓋婭 Gàiyà, cmn 蓋亞 Gàiyà Esperanto: eo Gaja French: fr Gaïa f Galician: gl Gaia f Greek: el Γαία f Hebrew: he גאיה f Icelandic: is Gaju f Japanese: ja ガイア Korean: ko ^가이아 Malayalam: ml ഗെയാ Norwegian: no Gaia Occitan: oc Gaïa f Persian: fa گایا Polish: pl Gaja f Portuguese: pt Gaia f Serbo-Croatian: sh Геја f, sh Geja f Ukrainian: uk Ге́ї f References Further reading Gaia hypothesis Gaia philosophy Anagrams en aagi aiga en Earth Danish da: Etymology From da grc Γαῖᾰ. Proper noun da Greek goddess en Gaia da Greek deities Mythology Finnish Etymology From fi grc Γαῖᾰ. Pronunciation gaia gaija Proper noun en Gaia Declension sg Gai a Italian Etymology From it grc Γαῖᾰ. Pronunciation Proper noun f it Greek god en Gaia Earth goddess it Gea it female Latin Alternative forms archaic or hypercorrect la Cāia la Gāja Etymology Feminine form of la Gāius. Pronunciation original Gā.i.a ** later Gāia ** hypercorrect Cā.i.a ** hypercorrect Cāia ** Proper noun Gāia<1.both> Gāius f Declension Gāia<1.both> Portuguese Pronunciation pt ajɐ 2 pt Gai a Proper noun f en Gaia pt Vila Nova de Gaia Usage notes Turkish tr: Etymology tr :der grc:Γαῖᾰ + 1 Proper noun tr Greek god en Gaia