The vanishing face of Gaia : a final warning
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xiii, 177 pages, [8] pages of plates : 25 cm
Lovelock first began thinking that the planet resembles a living entity in the 1960s, while working for a NASA project on how to detect life on Mars. While other scientists suggested elaborate tests involving space probes to check for microbes in Martian soil, Lovelock said to save the rocket fuel, we didn't even need to bother going there. Life, he theorized, would leave its telltale signature in a planet's atmosphere. There would be chemicals or elements that shouldn't be there but for the existence of something unusual, like living things. Anyone looking at the Earth from afar could tell right away that it had to harbour life because its atmosphere is loaded with oxygen, a gas so chemically reactive it shouldn't exist at all in any quantity. -- from http://www.theglobeandmail.com (Dec. 17, 2015)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-172) and index
The journey in space and time -- The climate forecast -- Consequences and survival -- Energy and food sources -- Geoengineering -- The history of Gaia theory -- Perceptions of Gaia -- To be or not to be green -- To the next world
Lovelock first began thinking that the planet resembles a living entity in the 1960s, while working for a NASA project on how to detect life on Mars. While other scientists suggested elaborate tests involving space probes to check for microbes in Martian soil, Lovelock said to save the rocket fuel, we didn't even need to bother going there. Life, he theorized, would leave its telltale signature in a planet's atmosphere. There would be chemicals or elements that shouldn't be there but for the existence of something unusual, like living things. Anyone looking at the Earth from afar could tell right away that it had to harbour life because its atmosphere is loaded with oxygen, a gas so chemically reactive it shouldn't exist at all in any quantity. -- from http://www.theglobeandmail.com (Dec. 17, 2015)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-172) and index
The journey in space and time -- The climate forecast -- Consequences and survival -- Energy and food sources -- Geoengineering -- The history of Gaia theory -- Perceptions of Gaia -- To be or not to be green -- To the next world
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