Earth as a living organism

The problem of the differences between the theories of Lovelock and Vernadsky can be approached as Lovelock does so himself in his recent article on the topic. Lovelock talks about the traditional and liberal views in the history of the Earth sciences. The traditional sqrproach sees the Earth as having a capacity to regulate itself and to keep cool when things are changing adversely, i.e. to keep homeostasis. He concludes This then is the first tradition, that sees the Earth as a living organism" (Lovelock, 1996, p. 15-16). Lovelock ascribes himself to this traditional view. 

Lovelock defines Earth as a living organism, first of all, because of its homeostatic properties. But he draws also some other analogies to show how close the concept of Gaia is linked with the concept of life. Perhaps the most illustrative is his morphological redwood tree - argument. The tree undoubtedly is alive, yet 99 percent is dead" (Lovelock, 1989b, p, 27). Dead wood of a tree can be compared with the apparently inanimate rocks of the Earth. 

---