REFER TO GREY: Contemplations by Robert Greigos © 2007-2024

The Gaia theory suggests the Earth as a whole be considered a living organism, functioning to organize physical and biological processes necessary for maintaining conditions for life. The notion of organized pattern is essential to the theory. Noted previously on the page At Odds, biological systems seem to produce patterns fundamentally different from those of non-biological systems. They are less random and contain higher potential energy than their immediate surroundings. If the sustaining life force dies or moves on, the life produced structure succumbs over time to purely physical processes and both its organization and potential energy dissipate into the larger environment.

Amazing to look closely at a piece of our rural heartland and see the myriad patterning of biologically manufactured structure exploiting purely physical processes like sunshine, wind, gravity, combustion, and electro-magnetism to ply and funnel life-sustaining chemical energy through increasingly complex channels of distribution. The human capacity for toil and ingenuity is both admirable and appreciated. But this same land in Dust Bowl days became a ruin of misery when well-intended human ignorance was overwhelmed by the innate will and wisdom of Gaia.

Could similar or worse ruin and misery ensue this time? Undoubtedly it will unless more and more of us begin to take seriously the natural laws of the world in which we live, and learn to understand and cooperate with their workings and wisdom.