Gaia

James Lovelock recently wrote the book

"The Revenge of Gaia"

I write a few comments here.

As I write I am listening the UN's debate on C-SPAN on the Israel-Lebanon War. I was born in 1949, one year later than the establishment of a new state in Palestine. Fifty seven years from then we are witnessing now the war between two semitic people, descendants of Abraham: the children of Ismael and of Isaac. When the children fight, the Earth, Gaia suffers. Our mother Gaia is sick. Lovelock does not think that she will die; but he is not so confident as to the future of the children of Abraham.

In more scientific terms the problem Lovelock's warns us about is relatively simple. The Sun is getting hot, the gases on the Earth's atmosphere are keeping more heat inside than is reflected back into space. The result is that most of us will be able to survive only moving North in the northern hemisphere, and South in the southern hemisphere.

Why should we believe Lovelock? He was the first or one of the first to recognize that the Earth-Sun system is more dynamic than previously thought. Once life starts on Earth it is unavoidable to establish feedback connections that control the temperature of the atmosphere. There is a balance between life, i.e. the biosphere, the temperature of the atmosphere and the Sun's temperature. There are indications that this balance is moving to a new point of equilibrium, that likely will make the Equator unhabitable.

We can choose to disregrad Lovelock's warning, I for one take him very seriously.