Word: somes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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According to the Gaia hypothesis, earth's atmosphere would be unstable for life if it were not regulated by the biosphere, the envelope of life surrounding earth. Oxygen levels have remained at roughly 21% of the atmosphere for 200 million years, Lovelock asserts, whereas they should have fluctuated wildly, according...
Lovelock originally thought that some purposeful design organized living things to stabilize the atmosphere and climate. Now he and Margulis believe this regulation is achieved through the simple mechanism of feedback. For instance, in a hypothetical scenario, Lovelock shows that a planet covered simply by light- and dark-colored daisies...
Gaia's critics have by no means been silenced. Some dispute the degree to which life-forms stabilize the atmosphere and temper the climate. Others contend that the emergence of oxygen in earth's atmosphere contradicts Gaia because it made the air poisonous for anaerobic creatures of primordial times. Evolutionary...
Its critics notwithstanding, Gaia seems to be gaining in influence among both scientists and theologians. To some, Gaia's appeal is that it promises to end the long estrangement of Western science and religion. Even if the biosphere regulates the planet by feedback, Gaia still integrates living things and inanimate...
Some of her early appearances were little short of disastrous, revealing her as shockingly unfamiliar with economic and foreign-policy issues. She has also spent considerable time out of the country, raising funds among wealthy exiles and testing the world stage. This has made little impression on an electorate more...