The latest natural disasters prompt us to question the way we behave on Earth and reflect on our responsibility towards it. According to many, the Earth’s wrath is its way of alerting people to the harmful effects it suffers from. Some may laugh at this theory, others take it very seriously, just like many scientists.
What are the causes of climate change?
With the theory on climate change, it is public knowledge that Mankind plays an important part in the deterioration of the climate and in the increase of temperatures. States, but also private individuals, must do their utmost to prevent a worldwide catastrophe, or even the disappearance of every living form on Earth. This is a key issue in this century.
Now that climate change is unanimously acknowledged, attesting to the fact that Mankind is able to make climate change and suffer the consequences, why would the opposite not hold true?
Could the Earth demonstrate its dissatisfaction by causing natural disasters to punish Mankind and let it experience the pain it feels because of the repeated human aggressions?
This assumption would suggest that the Earth has a conscience and can feel the pain just like every human being, every animal. According to some traditions, even minerals are said to be sensitive to their environment.
In many traditions (shamanistic, Celtic, Nordic, Native American, African…) and in religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, the Earth is a great living organism formed by the sum of the consciousness of all the living systems inhabiting it.
In traditional societies, each living form (animals, humans, vegetables or minerals) has a consciousness that manifests itself differently than human consciousness.
With this in mind, many researchers have proven that animals have a consciousness and are capable of adapting to their environment in case of need. Likewise, it has been demonstrated that vegetables are able to react to external stresses.
These adaptation behaviors, which biologists have observed many times, prove that every living form on Earth has a consciousness and is not just a passive and inanimate object.
Furthermore, according to certain traditions, many spirits (elves, fairy godmothers, imps, korrigans) populate nature and help to watch over it. They are said to be the bearers of the consciousness of the Earth.
The Gaia hypothesis
All these beliefs could have been considered delirium by the scientific community, had some of the most serious and qualified researchers not looked into these so-called… fairy tales.
In 1970, the declarations of an English environmentalist, James Lovelock, came like a bolt out of the blue as he put forward his biogeochemical hypothesis, better known as the “Gaia hypothesis”, derived from the name of the goddess symbolizing the Earth in Ancient Greece.
James Lovelock declared that the Earth “includes the biosphere and is a dynamic physiological system that has kept our planet fit for life for over three billion years”.
It must be emphasized that many scientists before James Lovelock, like the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) or Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519), who compared the way the Earth functions to the way our body works, had suggested that the Earth is a living organism.
The Earth is a self-regulating entity
According to James Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis, all the living beings on Earth form a vast organism that is able to self-regulate itself and react in the face of a threat against life on this planet.
Climate disasters would thus be reactions created by this immense organism to restore the natural equilibrium lost. Therefore, these disasters can cause disequilibrium. The same can happen in any living organism, including in our body, which is always precariously balanced. Such disasters can also sometimes be reactions from the Earth meant to make Mankind aware that it is not behaving kindly towards the Earth and has to modify its behavior.
Digital Information Publishing 