Ecology
Propounded by British scientist James Lovelock (who is now 97) in the 1970s, the Gaia hypothesis conceives of the earth as a self-regulating system, much like a single organism. The earth’s living organisms and its physical components (air, water, soil), according to this hypothesis, form a complex system that interacts with each other in such as way as to maintain the conditions essential for the sustenance of life on the planet. This equilibrium, Lovelock argues, is being skewed by heightened human intervention that threatens not just the planet’s biodiversity but the future sustenance of human beings themselves.
