Plus: all these branches of science conspire, and bypass political
polarization, to make anti-global warming proponents seem like
"creation scientists."
The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis that proposes that
living and nonliving parts of the earth are viewed as a complex
interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism. Named
after the Greek earth goddess, this hypothesis postulates that all
living things have a regulatory effect on the Earth's environment that
promotes life overall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis
Gaia, Earth, was believed by the ancient Greeks to be a living,
fertile ancestor of many of their important gods. The Romans, who
adopted many Greek gods and ideas as their own, also believed in this
organismic entity, who they renamed Terra. The Gaian notion has been
personified in more recent interpretations as "Mother Earth." The Gaia
hypothesis is a recent and highly controversial theory that views
Earth as an integrated, pseudo-organismic entity and not as a mere
physical object in space. The Gaia hypothesis suggests that organisms
and ecosystems on Earth cause substantial changes to occur in the
physical and chemical nature of the environment, in a manner that
improves the living conditions on the planet. In other words, it is
suggested that Earth is an organismic planet, with homeostatic
mechanisms that help to maintain its own environments within the
ranges of extremes that can be tolerated by life.
Earth is the only planet in the universe that is known to support
life. This is one of the reasons why the Gaia hypothesis cannot be
tested by rigorous, scientific experimentation-there is only one known
replicate in the great, universal experiment. However, some supporting
evidence for the Gaia hypothesis can be marshaled from certain
observations of the structure and functioning of the planetary
ecosystem...
...One supporting line of reasoning for the Gaia hypothesis concerns
the presence of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. It is believed by
scientists that the primordial atmosphere of Earth did not contain
oxygen. The appearance of this gas required the evolution of
photosynthetic life forms, which were initially blue-green bacteria
and, somewhat later, single-celled algae. Molecular oxygen is a waste
product of photosynthesis, and its present atmospheric concentration
of about 21%% has entirely originated with this biochemical process
(which is also the basis of all biologically fixed energy in
ecosystems). Of course, the availability of atmospheric oxygen is a
critically important environmental factor for most of Earth's species
and for many ecological processes.
In addition, it appears that the concentration of oxygen in the
atmosphere has been relatively stable for an extremely long period of
time, perhaps several billions of years. This suggests the existence
of a long-term equilibrium between the production of this gas by green
plants, and its consumption by biological and non-living processes. If
the atmospheric concentration of oxygen were much larger than it
actually is, say about 25%% instead of the actual 21%%, then biomass
would be much more readily combustible. These conditions could lead to
much more frequent and more extensive forest fires. Such
conflagrations would be severely damaging to Earth's ecosystems and
species...
...Some proponents of the Gaia ...suggest that there is a planetary,
homeostatic control of the concentration of molecular oxygen in the
atmosphere. This control is intended to strike a balance between the
concentrations of oxygen required to sustain the metabolism of
organisms, and the larger concentrations that could result in
extremely destructive, uncontrolled wildfires.
Another line of evidence in support of the Gaian theory concerns
carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. To a substantial degree, the
concentration of this gas is regulated by a complex of biological and
physical processes by which carbon dioxide is emitted and absorbed.
This gas is well known to be important in the planet's greenhouse
effect, which is critical to maintaining the average temperature of
the surface within a range that organisms can tolerate. It has been
estimated that in the absence of this greenhouse effect, Earth's
average surface temperature would be about -176°F (-116°C), much too
cold for organisms and ecosystems to tolerate over the longer term.
Instead, the existing greenhouse effect, caused in large part by
atmospheric carbon dioxide, helps to maintain an average surface
temperature of about 59°F (15°C). This is within the range of
temperature that life can tolerate.
http://science.jrank.org/pages/2900/Gaia-Hypothesis.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=xW_T4jV9mFAC&pg=PA124&lpg=PA124&dq=gaia+%%22forest...
Earth science (also known as geoscience, the geosciences or the Earth
Sciences), is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the
planet Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science,
being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist
and holistic approaches to Earth science. The major historic
disciplines use physics, geology, geography, meteorology, mathematics,
chemistry and biology to build a quantitative understanding of the
principal areas or spheres of the Earth system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_System_Science
Climatology is the study of climate, scientifically defined as weather
conditions averaged over a period of time, and is a branch of the
atmospheric sciences. Basic knowledge of climate can be used within
shorter term weather forecasting using analog techniques such as
teleconnections and climate indices.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatology
Atmospheric chemistry is a branch of atmospheric science in which the
chemistry of the Earth's atmosphere and that of other planets is
studied. It is a multidisciplinary field of research and draws on
environmental chemistry, physics, meteorology, computer modeling,
oceanography, geology and volcanology and other disciplines. Research
is increasingly connected with other areas of study such as
climatology.
The composition and chemistry of the atmosphere is of importance for
several reasons, but primarily because of the interactions between the
atmosphere and living organisms. The composition of the Earth's
atmosphere has been changed by human activity and some of these
changes are harmful to human health, crops and ecosystems. Examples of
problems which have been addressed by atmospheric chemistry include
acid rain, photochemical smog and global warming. Atmospheric
chemistry seeks to understand the causes of these problems, and by
obtaining a theoretical understanding of them, allow possible
solutions to be tested and the effects of changes in government policy
evaluated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_chemistry
Greenhouse gases (GHG) are components of the atmosphere that
contribute to the greenhouse effect. Some greenhouse gases occur
naturally in the atmosphere, while others result from human activities
such as burning of fossil fuels such as coal.[1] Greenhouse gases
include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and
ozone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas
The Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion is a sequence of reports
sponsored by WMO/UNEP. The most recent is the 2006 report.
The reports were set up to inform the Montreal Protocol and amendments
about ozone depletion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Assessment_of_Ozone_Depletion
DAISYWORLD: a hypothetical world orbiting a sun whose temperature is
slowly increasing and the simulated planet is seeded with two
different species of daisy: Light absorbing black daisies and light
reflecting white daisies. At the beginning Daisyworld is so cold that
only a few black daisies, and almost no white daises, can survive.
Whenever the planet's temperature decreases, the black flowers tend to
predominate, they absorb a little heat from the sun, which causes the
planet's temperature to rise, allowing a greater proliferation of
black daisies, more absorption of heat, and so on. As the planet
becomes hotter white daisies begin to breed as well, and eventually
the planet reaches a point of temperature equilibrium.
[as you know if the oxygen percent goes up in the atmospher there are
more forest fires and this decreases the oxygen required for more
fires.]
------------------------------
An entity comprising a whole planet and with a powerful capacity to
regulate the climate needs a name to match. It was the novelist
William Golding who proposed the name Gaia.
http://www.ozi.com/ourplanet/lovelock.html
http://www.ozi.com/ourplanet/greeks.html
------------------------------
Daisyworld is a hypothetical planet which is used to study systems. It
is based on James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis. There are only two
factors on this imaginary planet that determine the average surface
temperature. One is solar luminosity. The other is albedo, or the
reflectivity of a surface.
The daisies on Daisyworld are pure white in color, and the area that
is not covered in white daisies is covered with gray soil. Only the
area covered by gray soil can absorb sunlight.
Therefore, the more white daisies, the cooler the planet. White
daisies increase the albedo, because the sun reflects more off of
white surfaces than it does off of black (or gray) surfaces. The
growth and spread of the daisies across the planet's surface depends
only on the temperature around them.
Solar luminosity and white daisy growth are directly related. White
daisy growth and average surface temperature are inversely related.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/e/d/edm130/daisyworld.html
-------------------------------
James Lovelock and Andrew Watson originally illustrated the Gaia
hypothesis with Daisyworld in a paper published in 1983. Daisyworld, a
computer simulation, is a hypothetical world orbiting a sun whose
temperature is slowly increasing in the simulation. The simulated
planet is seeded with two different species of daisy as its only life
form: black daisies and white daisies. White daisies have white
flowers which reflect light very well and grows best in warm
temperatures, and the other species has black flowers that absorb
light well and grows best in cool temperatures.
At the beginning of the simulation, Daisyworld is so cold that only a
few black daisies, and almost no white daises, can survive. Whenever
the planet's temperature decreases, the black flowers tend to
predominate, they absorb a little heat from the sun, which causes the
planet's temperature to rise, allowing a greater proliferation of
black daisies, more absorption of heat, and so on. As the planet
becomes hotter white daisies begin to breed as well, and eventually
the planet reaches a point of temperature equilibrium. Any increase in
temperature is combated by a greater proportion of white daisies; any
decrease leads to more black daisies. Such a system is remarkably
stable against varying solar input; the entire planet maintains
homeostasis. Eventually the external temperature becomes too hot for
the daisies to oppose, and heat overwhelms the planet.
When the simulation is run without the daisies, the planet's
temperature proceeds in lockstep with that of the sun. With the
daisies, at the beginning of the simulation there is enhanced warming,
and at the end of the simulation enhanced cooling, resulting in a
close to equilibrium temperature for most of the simulation. In this
way the daisies are modifying the climate to make conditions more
hospitable for themselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisyworld
http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_Hypothesis
-----------------------------
An example of geophysiological regulation behaviour can be found in
the Earth system: Silicate-rock weathering as a process to regulate
the surface temperature. Due to silicate rock weathering CO2 is taken
out of the atmosphere. At geologic time scales there is an equilibrium
between this sink of carbon and the sources by volcanic emissions. An
increase in temperature accelerates the chemical processes of
weathering reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Due to the
lower greenhouse effect the temperature decreases; we have a negative
feedback regulating the surface temperature.
Based on the work of Lovelock and Whitfield (1982) Caldeira and
Kasting (1992) have developed a model to estimate the life span of the
biosphere taken into account the above mentioned feedback mechanism.
http://www.pik-potsdam.de/~bloh/
