In view of the climate conference to be held next December in Copenhagen, from which we can expect some important decisions concerning protection of the planet, I decided to create a sort of path towards all 'event staged approach to addressing the key issues related to it. With this in mind I decided to start the conversation by focusing on two main theories that predict what future awaits the Earth and its inhabitants, and which also appear to differ significantly from each other. The
Gaia theory, which takes its name from the ancient Greek goddess of Earth, mother and protector of all life forms, claims that our planet, for all damages caused by man, is nevertheless capable of regulating itself and evolve to ensure the welfare of its inhabitants. The theory of
Medea, which instead takes its name from the mythological character of Medea, in fact, the wife of Jason and famous for murdering their children, argues instead that the evolutionary system of the planet is inevitably destined to end in the extinction of life of its inhabitants. In essence
Gaia sees the earth as "benign mater" Medea and instead framed as a merciless stepmother and inhospitable.
The two theories are actually much more complex and groped to explain in detail would involve a much longer speech.
The Gaia theory is not new. It dates back to 1979 and was made by British scientist James Lovelock, according to which life itself is to regulate the atmosphere and Earth's climate in order to make a living through self-regulation mechanisms of its main variables: temperature, oxygen, acidity, etc..
In this theory, all things considered, fairly comfortable, he chose to oppose the American scientist Peter Ward, who sought to show that, for the earth's temperature in hand, in reality that proposed by Lovelock is a beautiful fairy tale and instead the latch temperatures recorded on the planet over the millennia can be attributed to the evolution of new species of life.
Over the past 565 million years, or the beginning of the evolution of animals on Earth, there were as many as 15 mass extinctions and 10 extinctions minor all caused not by external events (such as the collapse of a large meteorite on the planet), but on the emergence and subsequent evolution of new species that, digging their own space in the ecosystem of the planet, however small, have come inevitably to delete the existing species and in fact incompatible with the new arrivals.
You know the new American settlers who actually phased tribes Indian in America? Here, something like that. In summary
Ward, with his theory of Medea, says that life seems to actively pursue its own end, leading to the Earth faster and faster when the inevitable day return to its original state: sterile. According to Ward
the process of self-destruction has already begun: the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere gradually decreases until it disappears, thus preventing photosynthesis and in fact the whole life cycle connected with it.
There is however some good news: the process, although started should be completed within 500 million years ... So there is still a bit 'of time for a movie and a good book!
Michele Salvadori
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