The earth is living, the grass, the trees, the fruits, the animals, and us we all are living and Gaia is just the sense that we should respect and honor the thing that gives us life by living itself.
2006-08-14 09:56:45
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answer #1
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answered by Giz 2
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The "Gaia Hypothesis" was put out in a book about 25 years ago. The concept is relatively simple - that the way earth and the ecology behaves seems sometimes to be the acts of an intelligent being.
One of the examples mentioned was the ocean salinity issue. There's enough salt on the planet to kill everything in the oceans, thus putting the world ecology into a downward spiral - a lot of oxygen production from CO2 is done by ocean life. However, much of that salt is buried (i.e. the salt layers and domes under the American midwest, from New Orleans to Alberta.) As that salt seeps out, new storage facilities are being built. In a million years, places like the Great Barrier Reef, or even the Mediterranean, may become new salt pan collection points.
How does earth "know" that it needs to keep systems in balance like this? Is it pure coincidence that all these systems stay balanced, or is in a... (cue the music...) ...hidden intelligence?
I'm not sure the theory was supposed to be taken as real. More, it was to get everyone to see how many finely balanced systems - salinity, oxygen cycle, planetary warming and weather systems, volcanic activity, solar activity and the ozone layer, etc. - there are; these could all, if run out of certain limits, eventually kill all life on earth.
How and why have we survived a billion years? Coincidence or guidance??
From Google: What is Gaia?
The Gaia Hypothesis proposes that our planet functions as a single organism that maintains conditions necessary for its survival. Formulated by James Lovelock in the mid-1960s and published in a book in 1979, this controversial idea has spawned several interesting ideas and many new areas of research. While this hypothesis is by no means substantiated, it provides many useful lessons about the interaction of physical, chemical, geological, and biological processes on Earth. Thus, it is a good starting point for our study of oceanography, providing a broad overview of the kinds of processes that will interest us throughout the semester.
2006-08-14 11:20:08
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answer #2
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answered by Anon 7
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As previously mentioned, Gaia was the greek goddess of the earth or simply, the earth itself. There was also a scientific hypothesis that theorized that the entire earth is one giant interconnected living system like a giant food web and every single interraction between the systems causes a reaction somewhere on the earth. For example, an earthquake on the pacific rim causes a tidal wave in Indonesia. The tidal wave wipes out a certain species of plant which feeds a certain specific of frog. Frog is vital to another species diet and so on and so forth. Mind you, that's a made up scenario. I wouldn't think of the earth so much a mind by this principal but more so, an interconnected series of actions and responses.
2006-08-14 10:40:18
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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I think the hemisphere idea is based on old stereotypes. There are plenty of not-exactly-mystical people in the Eastern hemisphere, and not everybody in the West is logical.
That said, the earth definitely tries to work as a system, but humans are upsetting the balance. Maybe if we were more respectful of our role in the system, we wouldn't wreak so much havoc with the environment.
2006-08-14 12:57:13
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answer #4
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answered by SlowClap 6
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Our planet does have much in common with a life form. As for the division of hemispheres, I've never heard that. The earth seems to be far more integrated than most creatures on the earth, and much more intelligent. You don't see the earth trying to destroy another planet, do you? Yet people, who are supposed to be intelligent, aren't happy unless they are killing one another
2006-08-14 10:08:19
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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Yes Gaia is the name for Mother Earth. I beleive she is a living thing.
I think what you speak of with the hemispheres is more a yin yang thing.
2006-08-14 12:55:31
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answer #6
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answered by angel 6
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spirit and earth are connected and can be accessed with mind. don't worry about the hemispheres, too technical.
2006-08-14 09:51:49
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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yes. Gaia is a god of the greek mythology.
2006-08-14 09:51:34
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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I think you're putting too much thought into this. Not everything needs to be categorized. Sometimes, what is just *is* and that's enough.
blessed be
2006-08-14 09:50:01
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answer #9
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answered by Gabrielle 6
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Gaia is an old Greek God of creation.
Gaia, known as Earth or Mother Earth (the Greek common noun for "land" is ge or ga). She was an early earth goddess and it is written that Gaia was born from Chaos, the great void of emptiness within the universe, and with her came Eros. She gave birth to Pontus (the Sea) and Uranus (the Sky). This was achieved parthenogenetically (without male intervention). Other versions say that Gaia had as siblings Tartarus (the lowest part of the earth, below Hades itself) and Eros, and without a mate, gave birth to Uranus (Sky), Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus (Sea).
Gaia took as her husband Uranus, who was also her son, and their offspring included the Titans, six sons and six daughters. She gave birth to the Cyclopes and to three monsters that became known as the "Hecatonchires". The spirits of punishment known as the Erinyes were also offspring of Gaia and Uranus. The Gigantes, finally, were conceived after Uranus had been castrated by his son Cronus, and his blood fell to earth from the open wound.
To protect her children from her husband, (the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires, as he was fearful of their great strength), Gaia hid them all within herself. One version says that Uranus was aghast at the sight of his offspring so he hid them away in Tartarus, which are the bowels of the earth. Gaia herself found her offspring uncomfortable and at times painful, when the discomfort became to much to bear she asked her youngest son Cronus to help her. She asked him to castrate Uranus, thus severing the union between the Earth and Sky, and also to prevent more monstrous offspring. To help Cronus achieve his goal Gaia produced an adamantine sickle to serve as the weapon. Cronus hid until Uranus came to lay with Gaia and as Uranus drew near, Cronus struck with the sickle, cutting the genitalia from Uranus. Blood fell from the severed genitals and came in contact with the earth and from that union was born the Erinyes (Furies), the Giants and the Meliae (Nymphs of the manna ash trees).
After the separation of the Earth from the Sky, Gaia gave birth to other offspring, these being fathered by Pontus. Their names were the sea-god Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto and Eurybia. In other versions Gaia had offspring to her brother Tartarus; they were Echidna and Typhon, the later being an enemy of Zeus. Apollo killed Typhon when he took control of the oracle at Delphi, which Gaia originally provided, and then the "Sibyl" sang the oracle in Gaia's shrine.
It was Gaia who saved Zeus from being swallowed by Cronus, after Zeus had been born, Gaia helped Rhea to wrap a stone in swaddling clothes, this was to trick Cronus in to thinking it was Zeus, because Cronus had been informed that one of his children would depose him, and so to get rid of his children he had swallowed them, Gaia's trick worked and Zeus was then taken to Crete.
Gaia being the primordial element from which all the gods originated was worshiped throughout Greece, but later she went into decline and was supplanted by other gods. In Roman mythology she was known as Tellus or Terra.
2006-08-14 09:51:37
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answer #10
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answered by Anonymous
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