Seeking info on plague theory

[Patrick O'Neil]

On Tue, 6 Jun 1995, Giovanni Maga wrote:

> > Hello all,
> >     I am currently writing a paper for school on some of the killer
> > viruses. I have heard about something called "GAYA OR GIA OR MABE GAEA"
> > theorism. I'm obviously not sure of the spelling, however the gist of
[...]
> 
> The spelling is GAIA, it comes from ancient greek and means earth. The
> theory you are referring consists basically in viewing the planet earth as
> a living entity, with all the living organisms within (but not humans
> strangely) connected through a kind of network and able to *fight back* at
> our attempts to corrupt it. It is obviously a pure speculative theory
[...]

I believe that this perspective on the Gaia hypothesis is erroneous and 
unfortunate.  Granted, many New Agers (in particular) have taken up the 
idea and made it into a semi-religion, but nevertheless there is nothing 
blatantly wrong with the idea in its bare bones:  The earth is an 
interconnected set of physical and living processes (that's us and other 
animals) that truly cannot be separated.  If you alter one aspect, there 
is a ripple that affects everything else.  If you alter global 
temperature due to green house gas production, you alter physical 
processes involved in water and air circulation patterns.  These 
alterations directly affect various biospheres and biota, which affects 
others, etc.  If you kill off one species, an equilibrium is disturbed 
that must now be regained by something else and so all creatures, both 
predator and prey (that includes us) are affected and not necessarily in 
a "nice" manner.  The bottom line is that the hypothesis asserts that you 
cannot look at the earth and various ecologies, various biospheres, as 
separable and, therefore, exploitable without far ranging, unpredictable 
consequences.  It is unfortunate that the metaphor of an immune system 
striking back at human folly had to enter the ring because it is widely 
misunderstood and misused.  Metaphor is often employed in order to 
explain a process to ourselves and to others, but they are also subject 
to misinterpretation (see the Bible and the misuse of its metaphors and 
allegories).  It is not a valid reason to throw out the entire idea.  It 
would do us good to accept that you cannot simply pave over plain X and 
expect no wider cost beyond the immediate.

Patrick