Wrap Your Head Around This Idea - Gaia

Here is a new way of thinking that I learned about in my master naturalist class. It's a little strange and complicated but I'll do my best. It's a compilation of environmental science, nature, religion and philosophy. If you click on the link above you can get the wikipedia version. Consider the earth and all it's inhabitants as one large organism. Forget about thinking of humans as the center of the world, smarter than all other organisms. Instead the earth is one large organism. The whale, for instance, would be comparable to a toe. The earth can live without a toe. The tropical rain forest and the artic boreal forests are like the lungs. Not every organism or plant life is comparable to an organ but nevertheless, humans would be comparable to the nervous system or brain. If we, as humans, pollute the earth and cause global warming, the organism (the earth) will survive but will be changed. This idea is named Gaia - after a Greek Goddess pictured getting out of her chariot in the picture. Interesting, is it not?