James Lovelock & his Gaia theory on "How To Think About Science" - CBC Ideas Friday Feb 6 @ 9pm

"Listen to How To Think About Science - Episode 6: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/media/science/episode-6-lo... (RealAudio stream)
Warning: not for the timid! He finds it hard to believe more than 20% of us will survive this century, only in arctic regions or at higher elevations. He believes we are already past the limits of stasis for Earth in its "cool state" on our way to another instance of its "hot state" (which should end naturally 200,000 years or so from now). The Gaia theory is not "intelligent design" nor does it refute natural selection as early critics claimed. It is a system theory corroborated by many measured processes such as distribution of sulphur and iodine which is only available from the ocean yet found on land in the necessary concentrations for life by means of a delicate feedback system. Also as carbon based life, we live in a narrow temperature window maintained by the interrelated systems of plant life which erodes rock and absorbs carbon dioxide, cloud and ice reflection of sunlight and ocean layers. Without life, or 'Gaia', Earth would be 60℃. As quantum mechanics doesn't negate Newtonian physics he argues, Gaia theory is the non-linear framework within which natural selection may operate: a perfect volatile atmosphere in constant flux while maintaining that slender carbon temperature window maintained between 2 extremes since life began. In a sense Gaia has selected this planet, as carbon-based life could not exist as we understand it on a planet only slightly colder or hotter. This while the heat of the sun has increased 30% since life evolved on Earth! I have tried to précis the program as best I can, he's always been controversial. He's getting more pessimistic as he does the math and measuring. I think he's important to consider, he may even be right in which case we need to begin preparing to live in the world that missed its Kyoto chance. So steel yourself for an awesome theory and listen to Lovelock.

From the Ideas site, "Forty-years ago British scientist James Lovelock put forward the first elements of what he would come to call the Gaia theory. Named for the ancient Greek goddess of the earth, it held that the earth as a whole functions as a self-regulating system. At first many biologists scoffed. Today, Lovelock’s ideas are more widely accepted, even in circles where he was initially scorned. But even as he has been winning scientific honours, James Lovelock has been growing more pessimistic about the prospects for contemporary civilization.

...Modern societies have tended to take science for granted as a way of knowing, ordering and controlling the world. Everything was subject to science, but science itself largely escaped scrutiny. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years. Historians, sociologists, philosophers, and, sometimes, scientists themselves have begun to ask fundamental questions about how the institution of science is structured and how it knows what it knows. David Cayley talks to some of the leading lights of this new field of study.
Tonight's guest: James Lovelock.

http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/science/index.htm... (all episodes are linked from here)

also visit James Lovelock's site, wherein he answers "What is Gaia?" http://www.ecolo.org/lovelock/what_is_Gaia.html