Is our planet alive?

[Dexter Sinister]

Yes, I think the earth is alive, though I suppose that would depend on what you think "alive" means. It isn't going to reproduce, for instance, which according to the biologists is one of the defining characteristics of life, but I think we need a broader definition than that. There's an immensely complex web of life at the earth's surface, which I'd roughly define as a thin layer about 10 kilometres thick centred on the actual physical surface. It's full of complex feedback loops we haven't even begun to understand, but it seems pretty clear to me that all life depends on all other life, and humanity, with our unfortunate aptitude for laying waste to large parts of it, is by any reasonable definition a plague upon the planet. The geological record shows at least five great extinction events in the planet's history, and there's currently a sixth one going on that is entirely due to human activities. We're raping the planet, there are at least twice too many of us here for planetary health, but nature has a way of taking care of such things. There will be plagues, famines... 6 billion people cannot live here at the levels of consumption we enjoy in America, Canada, and western Europe.

And the sorriest fact to me is that we have the knowledge and the means to save ourselves and our planet in our hands right now, but greed and folly and short-sightedness prevent us from applying them. We have the means and the knowledge, but not the will, and nature will exact a horrible price for that unless we take control ourselves. The basic fact is that there are just too many of us and we're reproducing too fast. It's not sustainable. If we don't control ourselves, nature will, in very unpleasant ways.

 

[L Gilbert]

No. It does not have a heart, lungs, etc. It is an object that has the capability of supporting the life on it. No feelings, no sentience, no intentions, etc. Made of mostly ferromagnesium silicates and water.

 

[karrie]

I believe this is true scientifically.

actually, it is the moon that influences tides.

I get what you mean about the dogma of organized religion. I happen to enjoy the somber ritual of Catholicism, but, I don't care for all aspects of my religion. Pagan beliefs, first nations beliefs, well, all sorts of different religions to sum it up, have always intrigued me. I like getting a feel for the spiritual basis behind a person's view of the world.

 

[karrie]

The basic fact is that there are just too many of us and we're reproducing too fast. It's not sustainable. If we don't control ourselves, nature will, in very unpleasant ways.

Well, we can at least be proud we're doing our part for population control.... Canadians average about 1.5 children per woman (stats Canada release in 2004 of 2002's figures), which is actually a decrease in population!

 

[Vereya]

A short time ago we were talking with a Pagan friend of mine, discussing just this subject, whether the Earth is alive or not. And if it is alive, what is the humans' part, are we parasites of some kind or not. I personally feel that the Earth and all the living creatures on it could be compared to a body - a body consists of different kinds of organs, each of which has its own purpose and function. If you remove one of the organs, the whole of the body sickens and dies eventually. So it is with Earth and everything on it.

 

[karrie]

a body consists of different kinds of organs, each of which has its own purpose and function. If you remove one of the organs, the whole of the body sickens and dies eventually. So it is with Earth and everything on it.

How would this theory hold with the fossil evidence of the previous global extinctions though? The earth didn't die when everything on it did. As far as can be told, there were many thriving 'organs' wandering the earth. when they all died, the earth carried on. It may have sickened as you say, but it recovered nicely.

 

[L Gilbert]

http://cse.cosm.sc.edu/hses/StarEvol/pages/main.htm

http://ask.yahoo.com/20040121.html

http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/39/sun2.html

http://archives.vmacedonia.com/4872.htm

http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/outreach/workshop/thompson/facts.html

 

[Tonington]

As I said allready, I don't see the Earth as a living entity, but as Dexter said, their are complex systems at work. If we look at soil, do we include the largest portion of our biosphere? The many microbes which encourage nutrient cycling play a key role, fungi closes off many of the nutrient cycles, using up excess nutrients. To me the Earth is worthy of respect as any other life form, simply because life couldn't exist without it, but I don't see it as alive, any more than I would consider the moon to be alive.

 

[s_lone]

A short time ago we were talking with a Pagan friend of mine, discussing just this subject, whether the Earth is alive or not. And if it is alive, what is the humans' part, are we parasites of some kind or not. I personally feel that the Earth and all the living creatures on it could be compared to a body - a body consists of different kinds of organs, each of which has its own purpose and function. If you remove one of the organs, the whole of the body sickens and dies eventually. So it is with Earth and everything on it.

If the Earth is truly alive, as an entity, I don't believe humans are parasites because by definition, parasites come from outside your body. We as "thinking" humans appeared from within the Earth's ecosystem. That being said, I guess you could call us a cancer. :?

If humans are part of the Earth's "body" what organ are we part of? How about the neuronal network? That would suggest the Earth has some form of ability to "think" which I know is a pretty wild assumption. If that was the case, humans can both be good and bad to the global living planetary entity in the same way any individual can be a nuisance to its body and mind by the decisions it takes. Substance abuse, junk nutrition, abject laziness... these are all relatively conscious behaviors that come from a thinking mind harming itself and the body that comes with it.

 

[AmberEyes]

What an interesting question.

I do believe the planet is alive, yet there are aspects of the Earth I believe are no more than physical matter. If you take into consideration everything on this planet to be part of it, the trees, the animals, the bacteria and viruses, etc, then yes the planet IS alive. There is most definitly something that ties all life together, from the smallest single celled creature to the biggest animal. I believe this "force" or life juice is in fact the life of the planet. When we meditate and connect ourselves to the world around us, we connect to the planet's conciousness and through it connect to everything else. Even the moon is an extension of this conciousness, because without the moon we would not have the tides or light when the sun is down.

On a scientific level however, the planet is nothing more than simple elements and complex molecules. Everything from the atmosphere to the core is comprised of various building blocks of the physical, the basic elements made of atoms. Even living creatures, when broken down are comprised of these elements. This is why there is most definitly something that ties us all together and makes us alive. Some people call it God, some people call it the Great Mother or Gaia, some people believe it's just a complex series of chemical reactions - but we all agree it's something.

 

[L Gilbert]

If humans are part of the Earth's "body" what organ are we part of?

We would be the backside trying to be the brains. (And failing, of course. )

 

[L Gilbert]

How about calling our world alive but as a planet, it simply exists (kinda like a rock or some other satellite of a sun). Bugs, crows, magpies, coyotes, bald eagles, etc. could be all over and through a cow carcass but does that make the cow alive? lol A rock can move, does that make it alive? :roll:

 

[Tonington]

Or like a virus, not classed as a living organism, inert to everything except the cell it's programmed to react with, yet has processes found in living organisms.

 

[hermanntrude]

in the spirit of curiosity, how do the pagans link the sun to the tide? When Rom posted it first, I passed it off as a mistake, but, now I'm wondering if it wasn't. I'd love to learn more.

i don't know about the pagans but the sun IS linked to the tide anyway. The major force is of course the gravity of the moon, buyt the gravity of the sun also counts. this is what gives rise to neap and spring tides. when the moon and the sun are both roughly in the same direction we get spring tides from the combined gravitational pull.

 

[hermanntrude]

It won't matter... the sun will expand in its natural life cycle and bake the earth to a crisp before any other civilization has time to emerge.

probably not true. By most estimates we have billions of years, and some reasonably complex lifeforms would survive most global catastrohpes. cockroaches for instance are famous for being hardy to all sorts of things. now while not sentient or even intelligent, they ARE complex, with varied senses and jointed legs and so on. it'd probably only be a few million years before something popped up.

Life is NOT in danger. Humans ARE.

 

[L Gilbert]

Think I posted a few links as to the length of time we can expect to live here.

Anyway, by that time I would think we'd have infected a couple more planets.

 

[hermanntrude]

The show on terraforming that I saw put it at a mere 5-10 000 years before the sun expands enough (5 billion years is its red dwarf estimate) to make organic life on earth's surface impossible. According to their estimates there won't be a civilization like us evolving.

that show was wrong.

if it took 5-10,000 years at current rate of expansion then 5-10,000 years ago it would have been impossible for organic life because it was too cold. but life was fine, and was also fine millions of years ago. hundreds of millions. As for the idea that the sun will suddenly expand, i'm sure you can't accurately predict that to the level of a few thousand years.

 

[Tonington]

Indeed Herman, the pages I've found state that the sun will continue to fuse hydrogen into helium in it's core at it's current rate for another 5 billion years. That leaves enough time for sentient life to evolve if say bacteria were the only survivers of a mass extinction.

 

[Tonington]

An interesting follow up, if sentient life were to evolve from bacteria after a disaster, I wonder how similar that species would be to our own. It's entirely speculative, but I would guess it would be similar going on the fact that we share our DNA with a common ancestor on this planet.

 

[L Gilbert]

I would think life would evolve with a higher tolerance to UV radiation among other things.