Thinking Like Gaia

      5 Comments on Thinking Like Gaia

When Professor Litfin read Wendell Berry’s poem, “The Law that Marries All Things,” the verse that resonated most with me was “the great chorus of parts.” In relation to the Gaia theory and our global perspective of consumption, planet Earth is the ultimate adaptive organism while humans, as a smaller living system, are like parasites on a host. The Earth regenerates our nutritional sources on end, while we return the favor by exploiting its natural abundance for profit, dumping pollutants into its streams and hunting its wildlife for sport. What a disrespectful way to treat our host! If Earth is “the great chorus of parts,” incorporating the human living system as well as the living systems that support the flourishment of humanity, we should deprioritize individualism and take preemptive measures to ensure the sustainability of our colossal host. Individualism teaches us to serve ourselves and to think of our actions in a vacuum, as if they are independent from all other systems on the planet. In actuality, our actions are so intertwined with the greater global living system, and we’re already facing the gargantuan consequences of individualism such as our depleting ozone layer, the acidification of our oceans and the industrial reliance on nonrenewable resources. To mitigate the impacts of our selfishness, we could take a lesson or two from Gaia herself. By sticking to cyclical processes of consumption, so that even our waste is reusable, humans might be able to make the transition from using landfills to compost bins, or from mounds of toxic e-waste to non-stagnant electronic reuse. If we adopt this way of thinking into our day-to-day lives, or into our daily societal interactions, perhaps humanity can refer to the Earth as an example of sustainable living and our collective efforts will mitigate some of the damage we’ve already inflicted.

5 thoughts on “Thinking Like Gaia

  1. Carson

    I like the perspective you take on how we SHOULD approach treating our world instead of the inevitability of whatever is to come. Learning from out earth, we can live in synergy with the many systems in place to adapt, and live on this earth for much longer that out projections at this point. We, as parasites, will not be able to destroy the earth, as the earth eliminate us before we get the chance and then adapt and reach a new period of life for earth, but we can use what the earth provides us and give it back when we are done, we can use the knowledge of interdependence and use it to continue life on this planet. If any other animal was able to grow and live and procreate without any ecological check, they would too run themselves into the ground and go extinct, but there are layers and layers of systems that do this, like the food chain, so its a system where we all use this earth.

    In a way, I do not believe we will be able to turn it around, as the power concentration has yet to take a true look at the damage created, and we are nearing dangerous levels that will take much more energy to replenish than it did to remove. In order to turn the damage around, we have to work as a bipartisan world, not tempted bu the lure of money and control, but by the lure of a global population who is not in fear of self-caused extinction. I hope this is not the case, and I hope we do not reach rock bottom before we do something about the unsustainable way we keep the human species going.

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  2. Chase J Skuza

    I like your ideas and how you use your passion for this planet top propel your post, and you made a good point about the earth being regenerative but all we do is exploit it for its resources. There are so many things that we can do as a race but i feel like there is a cultural side that we should fix before we start demanding that these things be done. I feel like what would make your post a lot stronger is if you included what we are already doing to help these bad habits.

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  3. Willa Jane Jeffers

    Sara,

    I appreciate the ways in which you approach systems thinking and Gaia theory so that humans are depicted not only as a piece of a bigger cyclical system, but also as a parasite living on a host. It seems pertinent that we start understanding our incredible reliance on earth. As humans we have strong senses of self, which you allude to in your dissection of individualism, and this can cause delusions of grandeur. We think that we have the ability to use and control earth at our leisure. We do this not only by using resources in unsustainable quantities, but also be assuming that we can engineer solutions for that over consumption. We imagine that scientific discovery can get us out from under climate change in order to save the earth. I see two main issues with this assumption. First, that we can fix the delicate earth system by further altering it, and second, that we are saving earth. We are not saving the earth, as Karen discussed in class the earth has been through more drastic climate changes and it survived, it will survive again. We are not jeopardizing the fate of the earth, rather the fate of ourselves. Not only do we have a responsibility to respect our host, the planet that gives us life, but if we continue to alter the incredibly intricate natural systems, we are putting ourselves in great danger. The catastrophic weather shifts, rising sea levels and other climatic disasters will effect human civilization, we are saving ourselves. It is in our best interest to “save the earth”.

    “The Great Chorus of Parts” does indeed include us, Gaia is not separate from us, we are part of her. We both shape and experience our ecosystems. We will feel the effects of our actions possibly even more than earth will. We are the creators of what may be our own demise. It is ironic to say the least.
    Thank you for starting the conversation, I found your connections very insightful!

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  4. Bailey Sipes

    Hi Sara,
    I respect how you chose to approach the systems thinking of the Gaia theory. I think your explanation of the human’s part in the cycle of our planet, as an active part of the bigger system while simultaneously destroying it, rings true. While our role on this earth is to act like any other living creature and play our part as a care taker and participant in the cycle of life, we overstep this and continually hurt the very planet we are here to care for through our destructive actions like over farming, producing toxic chemicals, and hunting the animals in excessive numbers. We are selfish creatures who take more from our host than we return and this leads to other species dying as a consequence. Yet we don’t see this as an issue because we view our own existence as superior to others and therefore as an excuse to act as a parasite. Our individualistic views of our actions allow this behavior to continue, but like you said we reap the result of this by hurting our future selves. We can see through our centuries of existence that we now have affected our ozone layers, oceans, and soil which only leads to more problems for us. But we rarely point to ourselves as the culprit and instead find any way to pass the blame or simply “fix it” by damaging our planet further. I am impressed by your optimism that we as a species can turn this around in time to save ourselves and our host, however I am not a stern believer that in our current state of mind that this will be able to happen. Right now I think we are trying to combine our consumeristic ways with that of consuming less and giving more. While this works in smaller ways such as compost bins, or non-stagnant electrical use, it is not making enough of an impact that is needed to turn around the destruction we’ve already done. I think the only way to do this would for everyone to agree on a new set of behaviors that do not primarily promote consumerism and instead work towards giving back to our host. This is no easy task since our species core values would need to alter, but I hope we can make this choice before it is too late and our planet can no longer sustain us.

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  5. Rori Linda Kirkpatrick

    Sara,
    I think you’re thoughts were very eloquently spoken and your implementation of the Gaia Theory were well thought out. I think it’s interesting to think of us humans as part of the system and the circular form the world exists in. I also find it quite profound of us humans to even consider ourselves part of this system, like when defining the new epoch as the Anthropocene; why should a shark care about chronostratigraphy. If we are thinking circular, I don’t know if we should think of ourselves as parasites. Instead, think of ourselves as part of the system in a symbiotic relationship. Parasitic implies taking and gaining without giving anything back for the most part. I think the way we implement Gaian Theory should revolve around taking and giving and not just taking. If we intend on sustaining this planet for every living thing on it, we should learn to do as you spoke of- composting, and trying to create a waste free environment or maybe simply change the way we think of waste.

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