Is The Earth Alive?
Are planets living things? Is the Earth alive?
Thinking of Earth as a living thing can realign how we think about our place in the world.
A popular form of this “Earth as a living organism” theory comes from the Gaia hypothesis. According to Gaia theory, organisms work in concert to maintain Earth’s life-harboring conditions. Living creatures do, after all, create and maintain the atmosphere that fosters and allows organisms to live and thrive.
Mainstream scientists don’t give the idea much credence. However, this science, or the theories that often get debunked years later, isn’t what sustains us.
It’s the earth that keeps us alive and vice versa. We act as if science is our mother and father, but deeper under the microscope and deeper within ourselves, we can see that the universe is alive with movement and energy. We are not an insignificant speck of dust on a dead planet. We are the universe. You, individually, are a puzzle piece of the fractal.
Is the earth alive?
The best case for saying the Earth is a living thing, an organism like you or me, are the similarities to how the Earth behaves to an organism. Many of the Earth’s natural processes function in self-regulating mechanisms to maintain our ecosystems. This is most evident in the carbon and water cycles.
Down to definitions
But the definition of life can leave some feeling that it is unfairly arbitrary. Despite sharing many characteristics with life, Earth is defined outside of the “living things” category.
This can all very quickly devolve into what’s called a semantic argument: arguments that depend on the use of language and definitions.
Reasons to treat Earth as a living thing
Viewing the Earth, literally, as an organism, as a living being in its own right may not be entirely correct, but it is a powerful analogy that can help us to feel more connected with the world around us.
In the same way our microbiome is made up of trillions of cells that help us live, the Earth is made up of trillions of organisms that rely on each other to survive. The Earth is a living thing, if you want it to be.
Perhaps there’s a way to feel less alone, living with “Mother Earth”
Honestly, if we think about the planet as a living thing, something alive right along with us, that has the potential to make us feel less alone, and to work in partnership with the planet, and not against it.
It could be like Pando, a single living organism, located in south-central Utah. Looking at it, you’d think it’s just a typical grove of aspen trees. But, in reality, it’s a massive network of interconnected trees and root systems that may be as old as 14,000 years. That’s older than the pyramids, older than the dying out of saber-toothed tigers.
The point is – life may not always come in ways that we expect. Looking at the full picture, from the roots to the surface can make you feel more connected and less alone.
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