Charlotte Fowler - Ecology of Eden, Ch 21 Gaia Hypothesis

In Ecology of Eden, Chapter 21 on the Gaia Hypothesis, Earth is described as a self-regulating system where living and nonliving parts interact to help maintain conditions for life. Nature can be viewed in different ways. One is the machine model, where ecosystems are seen as predictable and adjustable. Another is seeing Earth as a living system or “mother”, where everything is interconnected and self-sustaining. A third is the idea of entropy, where natural systems tend toward disorder over time without energy input. The Gaia Hypothesis adds that even though there is change and chaos in natural systems, that chaos can actually be part of stability. Ecosystems often have built-in feedback loops and fail-safes that allow them to adapt to environmental changes and recover over time. This makes nature less fragile than it might first appear, but still something humans can significantly disrupt if we push systems too far.

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