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Posted on 05/07/2009 11:36:22 AM PDT by presidio9
Swine flu? Global warming? Toxic oceans? Why does Mother Nature sometimes seem to be on the attack? According to the decades-old "Gaia hypothesis," it's because Earth is a self-regulating system that is responding to our own excesses. In a new book titled "The Vanishing Face of Gaia," British biologist James Lovelock says humanity is "Earth's infection."
"Individuals occasionally suffer a disease called polycythaemia, an overpopulation of red blood cells. By analogy, Gaia's illness could be called polyanthroponemia, where humans overpopulate until they do more harm than good," Lovelock writes. He says the cure won't come until the human tribe is trimmed back from its current 6.8 billion to, say, 1 billion people.
-SNIP-
"I hypothesize that life and its processes, together often referred to as 'Mother Nature,' was, is, and will be anything but a good mother to her many evolved and evolving species," Ward contends in his new book, "The Medea Hypothesis."
Gaia vs. Medea ... that sounds like the start of a philosophical catfight.
-SNIP-
The way Ward sees it, we're the solution, not the problem. "In the short term, we are responsible for 'Medean' effects, but it's going to be our long-term stewardship and engineering that makes things work," he said. "I view humans as the only Gaians on the planet. Everything else is Medean."
While Lovelock uses "Gaia" to refer to Earth's biosphere as a kindly mother goddess, Ward uses "Medea" as a reference to the mother in Greek myth who killed her own children. Ward says life, like Medea, eventually sows the seeds of its own near-destruction - over and over again. "Life boils up and bubbles up, and through its own waste products and activities makes the planet no longer inhabitable,"
(Excerpt) Read more at cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com ...
If Mr. Lovelock were sincere, he would commit suicide immediately.
But he doesn't want to commit suicide.
He wants OTHER PEOPLE to commit suicide.
For their own good, of course.
The ninety-year old Lovelock had some stark comments in his “NewScientist” interview.
“Most of the ‘green’ stuff is verging on a gigantic scam. Carbon trading..is just what finance and industry wanted. It’s not going to do a damn thing about climate change, but it’ll make a lot of money for a lot of people..”
I can come up with a fairy lengthy list of folks that could do with ‘trimming’.
“I hypothesize...”
I.e. “I imagined it and liked what I imagined, so I’m going to fancy it to be true, without a shred of evidence.”
Fine. Democrats first.
Oh wait, I thought he said, "Madea."
Crack meet Pot. These guys fit the definition of an “expert” that I recently heard - a person that knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing. And of course the “defects” in the earth are explained in Genesis, but I doubt either of these children of “mother earth” have bothered with the explanation provided by the Creator. Anyway their musing are good for a laugh.
That's original, I wonder where he came up with that idea?
A groaning creation...
I think that about sums it up.
ie AL Gore.
Individuals also occasionally suffer a disease called self-loathing hysteria, an overamplification of pomposity mixed with idiocy.
It isn’t the happiest analogy, actually. The Earth’s population at the time of the Black Death was only about 400 million. Maybe 250 million at the time of the Plague of Justinian. Disease may be a lot of things but Mother Gaia throwing a snit probably isn’t one of them. IMHO.
It is part of the Curse.
An entire article on the medean effect, and they never define it.
Mass extinctions due to meteor stikes means Earth is set up to prevent over population? Stupidity. How does a supposedly intelligent person mistake chance for intent?
He is the earth doctor, and he's found a cure! All we need to do is "trim" 5.8 billion people, and Gaia will be happy once again!
In previous times guys like this were called witch doctors.
Incidently, if I'm willing to accept that "Mother Earth" controls everything that takes place on the planet, how does that translate into sunspots or ateroids tens of millions of miles from earth, which set out on orbits 5 billion years ago which would eventually cross paths with Gia, and send the asteroids crashing into us?
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