The Gaia Theory

Approximately a half century ago, scientist, environmentalist and futurist James Lovelock put forth a hypothesis stating, in essence, that the Earth and all the living entities on it, are really one single organism. Everything, the now 95-year-old Lovelock said, is interconnected. He called this perspective the Gaia Theory. To this day, not all of his contemporaries agree with it, but many do. Is vegetation in, say, the Southwestern part of the United States have an impact on wildlife in the plains of Africa? Do melting icebergs in the Arctic affect the ability of children in New Orleans to go to school? One, as Lovelock has done, can make a good case that there is a fundamental truth to this postulate.


A similar reality applies to our world of communication. It is not difficult to imagine, for instance, how well a teacher in an inner city school explains the fundamentals of math can touch the lives of children living on the other side of the world, particularly when reality suggests that many of the children that instructor teaches will impart their knowledge of math - little or a lot - onto others who will, on some level, communicate it others who will be eventually connected to the children living thousands of miles away. Does this seem to be a bit of a stretch? Yes. At the same time, it does not seem far-fetched.


All of us communicate non-stop. We put forth opinions, share information as we know it, etc. That this message-sending touches others there is no doubt. This information, whether it is factual or not, is passed along by us in the form of conversations, broadcasts, emails, tweets, books, sermons, etc. In the Gaia Theory, Lovelock argued the world is a self-regulating entity with a capacity to keep the planet healthy by controlling the interconnectedness of the chemical and physical environment. As this applies to communication, however, our ability to self-regulate to ensure more harmonious living seems questionable.