![]() It follows recent research, led by Professor Lenton, which offered a fresh solution to how the Gaia hypothesis works in real terms: Stability comes from "sequential selection" in which situations where life destabilises the environment tend to be short-lived and result in further change until a stable situation emerges, which then tends to persist. The new perspective article is published in leading journal Science on September 14, 2018. It suggested that both the organic and inorganic components of Earth evolved together as one single, self-regulating system which can control global temperature and atmospheric composition to maintain its own habitability. The original Gaia Theory was developed in the late 1960's by James Lovelock, a British scientist and inventor. Professor Lenton, Director of Exeter's new Global Systems Institute, said: "If we are to create a better world for the growing human population this century then we need to regulate our impacts on our life support-system, and deliberately create a more circular economy that relies-like the biosphere-on the recycling of materials powered by sustainable energy." However, such self-aware self-regulation relies on our ability to continually monitor and model the state of the planet and our effects upon it. Professors Lenton and Latour suggest that this "conscience choice" to self-regulate introduces a "fundamental new state of Gaia-which could help us achieve greater global sustainability in the future. They believe that the evolution of both humans and their technology could add a new level of "self-awareness" to Earth's self-regulation, which is at the heart of the original Gaia theory.Īs humans become more aware of the global consequences of their actions, including climate change, a new kind of deliberate self-regulation becomes possible where we limit our impacts on the planet. However, Professor Tim Lenton from the University of Exeter and famed French sociologist of science Professor Bruno Latour are now arguing that humans have the potential to 'upgrade' this planetary operating system to create "Gaia 2.0". ![]() It champions the idea that living organisms and their inorganic surroundings evolved together as a single, self-regulating system that has kept the planet habitable for life-despite threats such as a brightening Sun, volcanoes and meteorite strikes. ![]() A Living Earth Simulator will change how we see ourselves and our planet in ways that are hard to imagine right now.For around half a century, the 'Gaia' hypothesis has provided a unique way of understanding how life has persisted on Earth. At first glance, it seems a somewhat worrying, even frightening, vision of the future. ![]() So what to make of this plan and it’s ambition. He’s even assembled an impressive team to help, including partners from most of the top universities in Europe. This Google-Earth-on-steroids is to be called the Living Earth Simulator and Helbing’s plan is to have it working by 2022 at a cost of a cool EUR 1 billion, funded by the European Commission. ![]() He even wants to create ‘situation rooms’ in which global leaders can view and manage crises as they occur. Helbing’s simulator will look for economic bubbles and collapses, warn of global pandemics and suggest how to tackle them, it will model and predict the outcome of regional conflicts and determine the effect of our behaviour on the climate. This model will be capable not only modelling the planet in real time but of simulating the future, rather in the manner of weather forecasters. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |