The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth (Commonwealth Fund Book Program) Paperback – March 17, 1995

I was introduced to Lovelock's Gaia theory many years ago, and although I went on to thinking about many other theories of life on earth, I never forgot Gaia. So, when doing research for writing my next novel, I went back to studying further the writings of James Lovelock's many books. Beginning with The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of our Living Earth, I felt that this would be the place to begin. I was not disappointed. Lovelock tells us what is known and what is not known, and why we need not concern ourselves with the origin of life on earth. Although scientists can determine some facts about the earliest times of our planet, much is speculation based on mathematical and other models of what might have happened. As a reader of Scientific American and other such publications, I know that much has been discovered since 1988 when The Ages of Gaia was published, Nevertheless since James Lovelock does not hesitate to separate speculation from modeling from facts, this is an excellent primer for those readers just beginning their quest to discover whether the earth may, itself, be a living organism capable of changing and evolving to keep itself alive. Clearly, this planet has gone through massive changes during its lifetime, and in spite of the current over-population of humans, the destruction of natural habitats, and the rise of agriculture, the depletion of fresh water sources, and so much more, the earth may be adjusting itself once again.

Great book-Lays out the importance of Gaia, the living earth and the complementary efforts of all the living plants and animals on the planet in exercising chemical feed back loops which keep the atmosphere compatible with life. Only the "intelligent species", human beings, have the ability, through our collective stupidity and short term greed to destroy the feed back loops and the atmosphere. Life and Gaia will survive, hopefully without humans.

I got this book (published as a Norton paperback 1995) in October 2019. I've finally gotten into chapter 8, the one on Mars. And it is missing six (6) pages: 177-182.

A classic that is well-written and understandable.

Everyone should be enlightened about the idea of Gaia, the earth and the life on it are all part of one greater living organism. Pretty cool.

A good concise overview of the history of the planet. Helps to put the global crisis of human civilization in perspective. It's interesting to note how much of the text is devoted to defending the very idea of looking at our planet as a system, as if doing so is heresy. Really?

The evidence that the Earth's present state owes so much to photosynthesizing bacteria which gradually captured carbon dioxide is a humbling fact. And today so much of the new oxygen is produced by phytoplankton in the ocean. So, looking at the incredibly long times - millions and billions of years - it to form the oxygen rich atmosphere, in combination with the vast geography -- large regions of the oceans and forests - that are essential for the oxygen / CO2 balance, it is clear that tinkering with or fundamentally altering this vast life system - Gaia - calls for deep contemplation among leading scientists and politicians.We have a "Goldilocks Planet". The scientists Zalasiewicz and Williams recount the Earth's history and climate outlook in a book of the same name. We need to take civilized and planned measures to keep it that way. Ideas for improvements to energy, agriculture and society which harmonize with the biosphere can be readily found in this book the Lovelock's new books.

James Lovelock's The Ages of Gaia, a Biography of the Living Earth, fleshes out his idea that all of life on Earth--including the rocks--is in fact one living self-regulating organism.Is this even possible? To illustrate how it might work, Lovelock postulates a simple model of light and dark colored daisies, called Daisyworld, where populations of daisies increase and decrease according to how much sunlight the planet receives. His argument moves back to the Archean age approximately 3.6 billion years ago where the first bacteria-like rudiments of life appeared. In an explanation which is heavy on the chemistry, and somewhat beyond me, Lovelock explains how our present self-sustaining world balancing oxygen and carbon dioxide used and expelled by plants and animals could develop and adapt to changes in the sun's intensity.The Ages of Gaia contains a subtle but firm warning that we humans are changing the fabric of life on our planet, and setting the stage for what may well be (for humans and animals of our ilk) a stark uninhabitable world.

Llego en tiempo y con buena calidad

人類の過去に編み出したいろいろな見方についてへの批判もその考えを尊重しながら行われているし、なによりも人類の生存基盤への愛着に感動している。

基本的には、ジム・ラヴロックの前著と同じ趣旨の本。地球上の生きている部分（生命）と生きていない部分（環境）が相互作用することによって自己組織化し平衡状態を保っていること、そしてその平衡状態が自然な安定状態からかけ離れていることから、生物が環境を住みやすいように調節しているとするガイア仮説。前著との違いは、デイジーワールドと呼ばれるシミュレーションモデルとその結果が（割と詳しく）説明されている点。帯やあとがきには、この本がガイア仮説を理論化しているとありますが、それについては疑問。デイジーワールドのシミュレーション結果だけでは苦しいのでは（シミュレーション結果自体は面白いのですが）。デイジーワールドのことがかかれている3章までは興味深く読んだが、それ以降はさほど目新しい情報はなかった。4章以降はラヴロックの前著と重複する内容があるので、前著を読まずに本書だけでガイア仮説入門になると思う。