# 8

GAIA Hypothesis: Kohak presents us with Lovelock's idea that the Earth is a "superorganism" that is capable of maintaining itself to support life. Lovelock presents the view of life as an organism, while the depth ecologists take that interpretation further and state that it is like a person who takes care of all that is within; Mother Earth who takes care of her creation. Kohak discusses how the idea of mother earth has been passed down through history; Gaia was a term used by the Greeks for the name of their Earth Goddess. The Romans thought of the Earth having a soul that was mortal, like a humans, and would someday expire. This is different than the Christian perception that the Earth is the creation of God, as well as everything within it, but they do not disagree that all of creation may still be one being.

Loveland's focus was on the well being of GAIA, the the overall system of life on the Earth, rather than human benefit. From this view, the arguement would be made that helping people on Earth is not the solution, because in the end, they will still hurt the Earth and disrupt Gaia. Everything that humans do to try and make life better for themselves will end by affecting the Earth negatively. However, the point is made that Earth is able to compensate and take care of itself as shown in the past. Life itself works together to keep everything alive, but humans are the beings that broke this natural order. Lovelock states that the basic problem of this is the human greed for consumerism. I think it is true that greed is the sole problem of the ecological crisis. Lovelock does not agree with flannel ecologists that the solution is to fix what has been damaged, but rather to change the human spirit as depth ecologists would prefer. The question that Loveland leaves unanswered is what is the place for humans in this world of the Gaia? The Gaia and its evolutionary process, according to Loveleand, will take care of our place in this world. Our responsibility is changing our own attitudes about the life around us and how we will affect it.

Nature and the Human Animal: Many questions are raised in the beginning of this section. Modifying the human behavior is decided unwise, and changing the human view of the world is the solution. The question of what we ought to do as human is discussed in this section, and whether we should sacrifice human things for the sake of animals. An example that is given is whether we need to limit the amount of children we ourselves have, to save more room and resources for other species, and whether this is what is natural or not. Kohak states that as long as we still believe that God set us above the rest of creation, giving us a soul, then we will always treat other animals and nature as inferior to the human race.
Morris compares how similar human actions are to primates today more than ever. He explains the basic transformation over time that has led to such similar behaviors not only with primates, but with wolves also. There are three approaches to treat his sociobiology: the first uses the justification that whatever is natural is good, and whatever is artificial is not. The second approach is an explanation of the causes of our behavior resulting from evolution and what we evolved from. The third approach takes into accound our decisions, and the fact that what is natural is not always right; we are able to act agianst our nature and learn when it contradicts to what is right.

Kohak explains Wilson's ideas that becuase of human prescence, more and more species are dying out rapidly. This is mainly because we are taking over their habitats and polluting their environment. To Wilson, the ultimate goal or role of humans in nature is not only to preserve our species, but all of life that surrounds us. According to Wilson, flannel ecology is the solution, not the concept of Mother Earth. An awareness of the threat that humans currently bring to the Earth is the solution to changing human behavior. Each of these theories recognize the harm that humans are presenting to the world, and the underlying cause of these problems is the human greed for more.