[thruout, Lovelock calls Gaia "she/her", & Ares (the Martian Gaia) "him".]

"Earth is actively maintained and regulated by the life on the surface."

Preface: "...self-imposed inquistion called the peer-review. This well-meaning but narrow-minded nanny of an institution insures that scientists work according to conventional wisdom and not as curiosity or inspiration moves them. Lacking freedom, they are in danger of succuming to a finicky gentility, or of becoming, like medieval theologians, the creatures of dogma." Galileo in his struggle... "It is the scientific establishment that makes itself esoteric and is the scourge of heresy."

"It is the health of the planet that matters, not that of some individual species of organisms." "...aims... is to establish `geophysiology' as a basis for planetary medicine." Planetary doctors need a Hippocratic oath: to do no harm.
"...religious aspects... I have benefitted from the moral support of the Lindisfarne Fellowship..." including Stewart Brand.

Earth's atmosphere "...is in a permanent state of disequalibrium." "..Exuberant Disequalibrium!" (Love that phrase!)

Mars' atmosphere is not in that condition. In a NASA paper w Dian Hitchcock: "...life could not exist on a planet sparsely..." ( If it's there at all, it covers the place! JKH: Life of any form would disequilibrialize the atmosphere in some way.)

Atmosphr:	Venus	Mars	E,w/o life	Earth as is
CO2	96.5	95	98	00.03
Nitrogen	3.5	2.7	1.9	79.
Oxygen	Trace	0.13	0.0	21.
Argon	70 ppm	1.6	0.1	1.0
Methane	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.7 ppm
TEMP (C)	459	-53	240-340	13.
PRESSURE	90	.0064	60	1.0

Scottish scientist James Hutton, in 1785, called Earth a super-organism, & that its proper study should be physiology.

"I have called the science of Gaia: geophysiology."

"The practice of science is that of testing guesses; forever iterating around & towards the unattainable absolute of truth."

**16: ...in my view, no one has yet succeeded in defining life. ...it is difficult to grasp the concept of Gaia from the voluminous but isolated knowledge of a single scientific discipline. Better to know all about a simple system than merely a great deal about a complex one.

**p27: If life is defined as a self-organizing system characterized by an actively-sustained low entropy, then, viewed from outside each of these boundaries, what lies within is alive. (A tree is 99% dead.)

**p41: Gaia ... differs from other organisms of Earth in the way that you or I differ from our population of living cells. [Gaia is to an animal as you are to one of your cells. jkh.]
... early in the Earth's history, before life... [all of it] was still evolving by the laws of physics and chemistry alone. It was careering, downhill, to the lifeless steady state of a planet almost at equalibrium. Briefly, in its headlong flight thru the ranges of chemical and physical stages, it entered a stage favorable for life. At some special stage in that flight, the newly-formed living cells grew until their presence so affected the Earth's environment as to halt the headlong dive towards equalibrium. At that instant, the living things, the rocks, the air, and the oceans merged to form the new entity, Gaia. Just as when the sperm merges with the egg, new life was conceived.

?: The name of the living planet, Gaia, is not a synonym for the biosphere - that part of the Earth where living things are seen normally to exist. Still less is Gaia the same as the biota, which is simply the collection of all individual living organisms. The biota and the biosphere taken together form a part but not all of Gaia. Just as the shell is part of the snail, so the rocks, the air, and the oceans are part of Gaia. Gaia, as we shall see, has continuity with the past back to the origins of life, and in the future as long as life persists. Gaia, as a total planetary being, has properties that are not necesarily discernable by just knowing individual species or populations of organisms living together ... Specifically, the Gaia hypothesis says that the temperature, oxidation, state, acidity, and certain aspects of the rocks and waters are kept constant, and that this homeostasis is maintained by active feedback processes operated automatically and unconsciously by the biota.

**42; Vilfredo Pareto, comment on Kepler: "Give me a fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections."

The word 'theory' has the same Greek root as `theater'. Both are concerned with putting on a show.

**48; The diversity of the ecosystem is greatest when there is the least stress. When the heat from the sun is just right for growth and no effort is required for temperature regulation, then the greatest number of species can coexist. When the system is under stress, when it has just begun to evolve or is just about to die, then diversity is least, & the population is almost entirely made up of the darkest or the lightest species (daisyworld example).

**63; It matters little whether Gaia theory is right or wrong; already it is providing a new & more productive view of the Earth and the other planets.

Gaia theory provokes a view of Earth where:

1. Life is a planetary-scale phenomenon. On this scale, it is near immortal, and has no need to reproduce.
2. There can be no partial occupation of a planet by living organisms. It would be as impermanent as half an animal. The presence of sufficient living organisms is needed for the regulation of the environment.
   Where there is incomplete occupation, the ineluctible forces of physical & chemical evolution would soon render it uninhabitable.
3. Our interpretation of Darwin's vision is altered. ...fallibility of 'adaption'. It's no longer sufficient to say that "organisms better adapted are more likely to leave offspring". It is necessary to add that the growth of an organism affects its physical and chemical environment; the evolution of the species & the evolution of the rocks, therefore, are tightly coupled as a single, indivisable process.
4. Theoretical ecology is enlarged. By taking the species & their physical environment together as a single system, we can, for the first time, build ecological models that are mathmatically stable & yet include large numbers of competing species. In these models, increased diversity among the species leads to better regulation.

We have at last a reason for our instinctive anger over the heedless extinction of species; an answer to those who say it is mere sentimentality.

*76: I suspect that the origin of Gaia was separate from the origin of life. Gaia did not awaken until bacteria had already colonized most of the planet. Once awake, planetary life would assiduously & incesantly resist changes that might be adverse, & act so [as] to keep the planet fit for life. Sparse life hanging on in oases could never have the power to regulate or oppose the unfavorable changes that are inevitable on a lifeless planet. Sparse life could only be found at the birth or death of a Gaian system.

**80: Methane smog could've been the Archean equivalent of the ozone layer & would've acted, just as ozone does, to stabilize the stratosphere & to filter out UV radiation. ... In many ways, the photosynthesizers are like the white daisies; their growth cools the Earth by removing the CO2. The methanogen decomposers are like the dark daisies; their growth makes for warmth by adding greenhouse gasses to the air.

**89: (naked bacteria of most species are killed by UV; however,) "It was impressive, tho, how small a film of organic matter would almost entirely protect even these sensitive species. (..on scientists who sought life on Mars:) I could not help wondering how they could think there was life on the intensely irradiated surface of Mars, & at the same time believe that the land beneath the thick & murky Archean atmosphere of Earth was sterile. How could they fit into their minds two such contrary ideas?

**105; Don Anderson: "If the CO2 in atmosphere of Venus could turn into limestone, the surface temp & that of the upper mantle would drop. The Basalt-eclogite phase-change would migrate to shallow depths, causing the lower part of the crust to become unstable. Thus, there is the interesting possibility that plate tectonics may exist on the Earth because limestone-generating life evolved here."

**132: It might be that fires themselves are the regulator of Oxygen. Oxy in the air comes from the burial of Carbon. ... 2% reaches the sediments. ...1 part in 1000 is buried deep. ... up to 70% of the carbon in wood can remain after [fire]. Fires, therefore, would lead to the burial of much more carbon, because charcoal is entirely resistent to biological degradation. Paradoxically, then, fires lead to more Oxygen in the long run.
C4 [metabolic pathway] plants are able to synthesize at much lower CO2 levels than the older C3 plants. C4 includes some but not all grasses. Trees & broadleaved plants use C3.

Eventually, & probably suddenly, these new (C4) plants will take over & run an even lower CO2 atmosphere to compensate for the increasing solar heat. ...temporarily; cause in as short as 100 Million yrs, ...it would require a zero CO2 atmosphere to keep the present temp.

There are other cooling mechanisms.... If I am right that the glacial cool is the preferred state of Gaia, then the interglacials like the present one represent some temporary failure of regulation, a fevered state... for the present ecosystem. How do they come about? Active systems of regulation or control are well known to exhibit instability when close to the limit of their operating range.

There must have been more living organisms on Earth; how else could the CO2 have been so low? If more organisms were doing the pumping, where are they? ...it might seem that the ice sheets would leave less room ... however, as water was used to form the ...glaciers, the level of the sea would have fallen by some 100 Meters, exposing ... continental shelf. ... [an extra area] comparable w africa now.

**147; ...our paper ...suggests that dimethyl sulphide [creating cloud cover] is comparable in magnitude with that of the CO2 greenhouse, but in opposition to it.

**152. Henry Miller, in "A devil in Paradise": "... there is nothing wrong with the world. What's wrong is our way of looking at it."

**158: From control theory, & from physiology, we know that the perturbation of the system that is close to instability can lead to oscillations, chaotic change, or failure. [ sometimes, the obvious cure can be the last straw.]

**160; all the principal light elements that make up living matter-- Carbon, Nitrogen, Sulphur, Potassium --but excepting Hydrogen-- form acids when combined w Oxygen. Ancient rain was acid.

**162: ...emission of Dimethyl Sulphide (DS) [a carrier of Sulphur to land] from phytoplankton... is so large as to equal emissions from industry. ...two changes in recent years have made the natural transfer of Sulphur from the sea to the land a curse instead of a benefit. Before Europe was heavily industrialized, DS from the sea was probably carried far inland.... & slowly dropped its Sulphur over a vast area. Industry has increased the burden, but also greatly increased the oxides of N & other chemicals from [fires]. In sunlite, they can react to form the powerful oxidant, Hydroxl. [mostly from cars. ...[ now 10X what was. So now DS may dump its acid, fast, near the coast.] & dense algal blooms are centered near outlets of European rivers, emitting DS, stimulated by nutrients from upstream nitrate fertilizers.

**164-8. [ Lovelock first thought CFCs were a danger only as to their greenhouse action. His reasoning seems poor here.]

**170: I often have a nightmare vision of the invention of a simple, lightweight nuclear fusion power source. It would be a small box, about the size of a [fonebk], with four ordinary outlets... It'd be cheap, reliable, clean, safe; no waste, radiation; & never fail. [but Lord Acton...]
Already we are displacing our partners in Gaia w agricultural monocultures powered by cheap fossil fuels. We do it faster than we can think about the consequences. Just imagine what could happen w unlimited free power.

**178: If there were only 500 Million people on Earth, almost nothing that we are now doing to the environment would disturb Gaia. Unfortunately for our freedom of action, we are moving towards 8 Billion people, with more than 10 Billion sheep & cattle, & 6 Billion poultry. ...our capacity to modify the environment is greatly increased by the use of fertilizers, ecocidal chemicals, & earth-moving & tree-cutting machinery. ...we are indeed in danger of changing the earth away from the comfortable state it was once in. ... Bad farming is probably the greatest threat to Gaia's health.

**193-5: [ Depending on underground water, it may be impossible or easy to terraform Mars. (Ecopoiesis) Water vapor absorbs Infra-Red at different wavelengths than CO2, & is a bigger contributor to the greenhouse than CO2.] ..intuition that Mars is nearer to a state of aridity.

**[JKH: would the creation of the wrong stable state be more difficult to change than what was done in the first place?]

...no soil on Mars... conditions are poisonous & destructive of organic matter. If the Earth's stratospheric air could be compressed, you couldn't breathe it. The O3 (ozone), at 5ppm, would be painful & soon lethal. Mars surface is rich in Pernitric acid, which can destroy all organics. ...life cannot spontaneously develop there. (in its present condition.)
**195: ...consensus report that up to 2 atmospheres pressure of CO2 has outgassed from Mars, & as much as 100 Meters average depth of water. [so it may be locked up underground.] ...likelihood: it may be salt water. ... I have often wondered if most of the N is there as nitrates dissolved in the brines. Or maybe there are vast salt deposits--evaporation beds--left after the ancient water-flows dried out. [w Nitrates.] It will take another Viking to tell.

**197: neither water vapor or CO2 are effective absorbers of IR between 8-14 nanometers. CFCs absorb intensely [there]. An increase of CO2... will increase the water vapor, which will increase the warming. (CFCs---> CO2---> water vapor. Needed, for terraforming: 10K to 1 Million tons of CFCs. ...at least 20% cover is needed for Ares.

**202 Lord Young has formed the Argo Venturers, to think & act towards this end. (Terraforming). The prospect is a powerful source of inspiration. "I share his view, & think that the contemplation of the daunting difficulties of bringing Ares to life may help us to better understand the awful consequences of so damaging Gaia that we have to take on the never-ceasing responsibility of keeping the Earth a fit place to live--a service now provided for free."

**P208: See also: Charlene Spretnak: "The Spiritual Dimensions of Green Politics." Goddess-oriented european culture ended w an invasion from the east around 4,500 BC, & the concept of a remote over-god took root.

As the theologian Keith Ward wrote in the TIMES, Dec 84:
"It is not that people know what God is, and have decided to reject him. It seems that very few people even know what the orthodox traditional idea of God... is. They have not the slightest idea what is meant by the word God.
It just has no sense or possible place in their lives. Instead, they invent some vague idea of a cosmic force with no practical implications at all; or they appeal to some half-forgotten picture of a bearded super-person constantly interfering with the mechanistic laws of nature.
I wonder if this is the result of sensory deprivation. (!) How can we revere a living world if we can no longer hear the bird song thru the noise of traffic...?"

"The Irish missionary Sean McDonagh wrote in 'To Care for the Earth.', 'The 20 billion years of God's creative love is either seen simply as the stage on which the drama of human salvation is worked out, or as something radically sinful in itself & needing transformation.'"

**P211: Lovelock says we are personally responsible for pollution w our cars, etc. "Gaia is no doting mother, tolerant of misdemeanors, nor is she some fragile & delicate damsel, in danger from brutal mankind. She is stern and tough, always keeping the world warm & comfortable for those who obey the rules, but ruthless in her destruction of those who transgress. Her unconscious goal is a planet fit for life. If humans stand in the way of this, we will be eliminated with as little pity as would be shown by the micro-brain of an ICBM..."

*p214: Ilya Prigogine: "It is not stability but a succession of instabilities which allow the crossing ... between life & no-life."
... the corner stone of the scientific method is the postulate that nature is objective. True knowledge can never be gained by attributing "purpose" to phenomena." (systems are more than the sum of their parts.

**p 217: "For the present, my belief in God rests at the stage of a positive agnosticism. I am too deeply committed to science for undiluted faith; equally unacceptable to me spiritually is the materialist world of undiluted fact. Art & science seem inter-connected with each other & w religion, & to be mutually enlarging. That Gaia can be both spiritual & scientific is, for me, deeply satisfying. From letters & conversations, I have learnt that a feeling for the organism, the Earth, has survived & that many feel a need to include those old faiths in their system of belief, both for themselves & because they feel that Earth which they are a part is under threat. In no way do I see Gaia as a sentient being, a surrogate god. To me, Gaia is alive & part of the ineffable universe, & I am part of her.

**P231: "My vision of a future England ... return to small, densely-populated cities, never so big that the countryside was farther than a walk or bus ride away. ...1/6 'derelict', private to wildlife only. ... mix... of intensive farming... & small unsubsidized farms...."

**the three of us... son John. All physically handicapped in various ways. 8 grandkids. 30 acres, divided by the River Carey, 28 meters wide. House was once a water-mill. 10K trees on w bank.

Chain saws: "The more powerful the tool, the harder it is to use it right." Gary Snyder thought it benign.

"If we see the world as a living organism of which we are a part--not the owner, not the tenant, not even a passenger--we could have a long time ahead of us, & our species might survive its `allotted span'."

"... as foolish as... that our brains are supreme & the cells of other organs expendable." "...three deadly C's: cars, cattle, & chain saws."