The living Earth – Life is a Property of Planets

 

“No individual organism can exist in isolation…..According to the Gaia theory of James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, the evolution of the first living organisms went hand in hand with the transformation of the planetary surface from an inorganic environment to a self-regulating biosphere.  ‘In that sense,’ writes Harold Morowitz, ‘life is a property of planets rather than of individual organisms.’”  Fritjof Capra, The Hidden Connections, 2002

 

Sky:  I believe this statement of Morowitz is more in line with systems theory than the mainstream view of life ON the planet.  My view is that there wouldn’t be “life” on the planet if the planet was not itself alive.

 

 

Harold J. Morowitz (born December 4, 1927, in Poughkeepsie, New York) is an American biophysicist who studies the application of thermodynamics to living systems. Author of numerous books and articles, his work includes technical monographs as well as essays. The origin of life has been his primary research interest for more than fifty years. He is currently the Robinson Professor of Biology and Natural Philosophy at George Mason University after a long career at Yale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_J._Morowitz