Fireblog

The earth does not meet the requirements of an organism (cannot reproduce) and is therefore not considered an organism. But have you thought about why all life on Earth does act, usually, in harmony and cooperation in collective interest, just as the organs of our bodies do. The task of regulating Earth's temperature is such a massive and constantly-challenging job that it takes all of us, working together, to succeed. In Darwinian terms, individual life-forms competing strictly in their own self-interest will continually fail to survive the sharp temperature changes their selfishness allows. Only a life model with global awareness, respect and cooperation can sustain any of us in this temperature-fragile environment. Plant and animal life evolved a half billion years ago as a 'conscious' mechanism to perpetuate itself by regulating the temperature of its host planet. And it has done that awesome task remarkably well: Despite extinction events like meteor impacts, massive volcanic eruptions and ice ages, complex life has endured on our planet and re-regulated the planet's temperature remarkably quickly for half a billion years, and may be able to do so for another half a billion if some arrogant and selfish species like man doesn't mess it up.

• How arrogant, how foolish we are, to believe that the world revolves around us, that it is here instinctively knows, that our purpose is to do our small part to help regulate the temperature and well-being of the whole organism of which we are inextricably a part, this astonishingly rare and vibrant and wondrous blue-green ball, for the benefit of all life, for the brief period we have the privilege to be alive as a part of its awesome and finite history?

(Gaia Theory)