VOLCANO MADNESS: Re: [Geology2] Sulfur Finding May Hold Key to Gaia Theory of Earth as Living Organism

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Re: [Geology2] Sulfur Finding May Hold Key to Gaia Theory of Earth as Living Organism

And I'll take it one step further, friend Rick...

Your first paragraph addressed entropy and centrifugal force, but the second is where I have a slight problem. I do believe that there is a sentience of sort within the earth that may not be organic, and it is nothing we have ever fully known or can know. It's apples trying to define Bucky Balls. Totally beyond our ken, our vocabulary, and our awareness. There is too much smoke from the Gaia theory to totally dismiss it. I'm not even getting metaphysical here, unless you want to include God and this is NOT the forum for that discussion. What we discuss here is strictly based upon empirical knowledge. We're keeping Plato at home and embracing Aristotle, if you will. Even as scientists search for one unified theory (good luck, ya'll; you'll need it), to encompass the full body of knowledge, they dare not leave one corner without investigating it. That takes a lot of time, even for a possibly futile search.

The second thing is that yes, we are capable of causing very long term damage to ourselves and our planet that does not include a season of nukes. We've already put a hole in the Ozone. Global warming can result in too many blocks of frozen freshwater to dissolve in the ocean and then cause the ocean currents to slow or even to stop. Of course, the problem could disappear within say a few hundred million years, but then way back in the Archean, when Snowball Earth was a reality, most every form of life died. What lived gave us life. However, as a science person, I do not believe that we are the end result of evolution or that we're the species meant to be THE dominant species of the planet for all time. Continents will move into a new Pangaea, parts will be devoured by the mantle, and new land will rise from the divergent plates. There is a cycle that will continue until entropy ends the sun and subsequently our earth. Chances are that we'll be long gone from here. Anyway, by causing one thing, we could be giving rise to something altogether worse.

I suppose I'm borrowing a bit from Plato with his Allegory of the Cave, as I feel that what we know is so insignificant, compared to what there is to know, and what we see may not be exactly what we think it is. But given a course of movement, until interference alters the flow of that energy, then a new possibility will occur and create multiples of potential futures where only the laws of the universe will dictate which one will remain. This is NOT Plato's Theory of Forms and it is not science fiction.

Major extinctions happen, as there have been 3 where almost all life has ended, and the next one may get us all, but we do not have to dirty our own hands by helping it along. Balance never exists for long on this planet or anywhere else, for that matter. The norm of the universe is not the lulling bottom of a cradle (perpetual motion), but a swing in one direction or another. Newton was right. Reactions will take place that are already in motion to occur, because they were begun due to interaction by something else.

Despite our efforts to save ourselves, the big one may come out of the sky one day and smack us across our arrogant heads. However, as a species, we'll out breed ourselves most probably before that happens. I'm just sayin'.

Lin

On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 4:02 PM, Rick Bates <HappyMoosePhoto@gmail.com> wrote:

Ok, I'll take this on.

The planet is a cooling lumpy mass of minerals and chemicals, hot since the moment of its creation. As such, the heated matter is still partly in fluid form and it is still rearranging as portions cool. We note this as volcanoes, earthquakes and continental shifts. The rotation AND wobbly orbit around the sun, which averages out the heating/cooling annually, causes the oceanic currents, winds, weather.

It is covered WITH life in a vast array of forms, but there is no evidence that the planet itself is 'alive'.

Now on a personal and un-scientific note: We have been given residence on an amazing and perhaps unique planet to live on, which includes numerous bio-diverse systems. Those systems have the ability to absorb or alter what is put into them AND maintain a specific 'balance'. What mankind has done over the centuries pushes that balancing ability to its limit. The good news is that we've learned (and continue to learn) how to not challenge our environment.

There is also no evidence that humankind has or is capable of significant and permanent damage to this environment. Temporary and local? Empathically yes; but global and permanent? We're just not that capable without concerted effort (nuclear winter scenarios). The 'systems' put in place LONG before we came along keep us in balance too, if we're smart enough to pay attention. Fleas don't tell the dog what to do; they just irritate it to the point of reaction (scratching). (It's a good thing the planet isn't alive, it'd be P/O'ed at us).

Without wanting a lengthy discussion on the matter; this viewpoint recognizes that we've damaged our home. Some may view it as casual to global warming, but there is VAST evidence that the warming/cooling trends of the planet have and will occur repeatedly over the millennia (well before we happened). Frankly, the cause doesn't matter; we have to learn how best to adapt ourselves to the changes and how to minimize our impact (to reduce the damage). Failure to do that means an end to much of the life on this rock.

Extending that slightly (if you REALLY want something to worry about), what will more than likely happen first is that fresh water and food will become scarce. We're over utilizing available resources (fish for example) without allowing recovery time (forcing that system to be out of balance; reducing life). Some of the species are 'cornerstone' species; kill enough salmon for example, the eagles and bears die off. Without their spreading the pieces around, the plants that get nourished from the remains or waste, also die off. Then the deer, cattle and pretty soon we'll all be hungry, dusty and dying. It's conceivable that it can happen in a few generations; that's QUICK.

So minimize what you take (take only what you need); stop pooping in the nest (even birds know that) and clean up after yourself. That gives everything on this rock the best chance of survival.

That's the way I see it.

Rick

From: geology2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:geology2@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Allison Loukanis

I think there is a lot to this. How can earth not be a living organism, albeit a giant one. We have the earth consuming in continental collisions where one plate is subsumed under another ( there is a technical word for that but I cannot think of it at the moment). We have the earth spewing in volcanism. We have all sorts of interactions with temperature and currents in the ocean and continental drift. And finally we have the ability as human viruses to attack and change weather patterns in global warming and to affect the oceans with garbage. Allison