I see the Earth as more than just
a mixture of living things
and inanimate matter.
I see it as a tightly coupled entity
where the evolution
of the living things
and the evolution
of the inorganic matter
constitute a single and
totally inseparable process.
It's a whole system.
Somehow or other
life appeared on Earth.
I don't give a damn
if it was somebody put it here,
whether it was a waste bin cast aside
by some visiting spacecraft
or whether God fiddled around
with the chemicals that started it
or whether it dropped out from space
as Fred Hoyle believes.
Somehow or other it started here.
At that time the Earth
must have been just right for life,
otherwise it wouldn't have survived.
But the Earth
was evolving geochemically
and quite remorselessly towards,
although it would take a long time,
a state like Mars or Venus
and utterly impossible for life.
So life arrived just at the right
moment, so to speak.
'Gaia' is the name that I give
to the system that is the Earth's.
It's also the name of the theory
of the Earth as a system
which is, I suppose,
saying the same thing in other words.
Gaia got its name
in the oddest of ways.
Years ago I used to live in
Bowerchalke in southern Wiltshire
and a near neighbour of mine
was that novelist, William Golding.
He and I were good friends and we'd
go for walks around the village
talking about philosophical things.
And when the idea of Gaia
came into my mind,
I didn't call it Gaia then,
of course,
I was telling him about it,
how I thought the Earth
was a self-regulating system
and that the organisms
were somehow involved
in this process of self-regulation.
He rather liked the idea and he said
I'd better give it a proper name.
So I said, 'What do you suggest?'
He said, 'I'd call it Gaia.'
And for 20 minutes we walked on.
I was very puzzled
because I thought he'd said 'gyre',
those great whirls
that go round and round in the ocean.
And I could see that it was a
circular sort that I had in my head.
But I thought 'gyre'
was going a bit far.
Then he suddenly said,
'No, I meant Gaia.'
The Greek name for the Earth goddess
and of course I accepted that.
So how did it all begin?
