A view of earth history that emphasizes the earth's tendency to maintain a balance or equilibrium of natural systems.

An hypothesis proposed during the early 1970s by James Lovelock which states that all living organisms have the ability to affect their surroundings such as the atmosphere, lithosphere, and climate to maximize its biological success. The hypothesis connects the evolution and survival of a species to the evolution and conditions of its environment. [Scientists on Gaia; Stephen Schneider et al; MIT Press; Cambridge, Mass.; pages 4-7, 62; 1991.] [Atmospheric Change; Graedel, T. E.; W. H. Freeman and Company; New York; page 418-421; 1993.

For most practical purposes, the Earth may be regarded as a single living organism. Its surface is part of life itself. Its inhabitants (trees, animals, viruses, etc.) may be viewed as the organs of the organism. Proposed by James Lovelock. Less controversially: (1) life depends on the physical world and (2) the physical world is influenced by living organisms.

James Lovelock proposed the concept that "the surface of the earth behaves as a highly integrated organism capable of controlling its own composition and its environment." This theory compares Earth and its different systems to the human body which is composed of billions of cells working together as a single living being. Gaia is the name of the Greek goddess "mother-earth."

The proposition that the composition and temperature of the atmosphere is a product of interrelated activities in the biosphere, especially those of microorganisms, and that the biosphere behaves as a single self-regulating organism. Gaia was the ancient Greek goddess of the Earth. The hypothesis was developed by the British scientist James Lovelock and American biologist Lynn Margulis. (Lovelock was also the scientist who discovered that chlorofluorocarbons were not broken down in the troposphere).

Earth homeostasis is maintained by active feedback processes operated automatically and unconsciously by the biota

The Gaia hypothesis states that the temperature and composition of the Earth's surface are actively controlled by life on the planet. It suggests that if changes in the gas composition, temperature or oxidation state of the Earth are induced by astronomical, biological, lithological, or other perturbations, life responds to these changes by growth and metabolism.

The idea that Earth is a living system. Life helps create the environment it needs in order to live. Gaia is the ancient Greek word for "Mother Earth."

Theory that Earth is a self-perpetuating living system. Gaia is ancient Greek for "Mother Earth."

A theory that the living organisms of the biosphere form a single, complex interacting system that creates and maintains a habitable Earth; named after Gaia, the Greek Earth mother goddess.

is a class of scientific models of the biosphere in which life fosters and maintains suitable conditions for itself by affecting Earth's environment. The first such theory was created by the English atmospheric scientist James Lovelock in 1969. He hypothesized that the living matter of the planet functioned like a single organism (or mind) and named this self-regulating living system after the Greek goddess Gaia.

Theory by James Lovelock which sees the earth as a living system

is the idea, developed by James Lovelock, that Earth's systems behave as a single living entity striving to maintain health and stability conducive to the existence of life.

named for the Greek Earth goddess Gaea. It states that the Earth should be regarded as a living organism and that biological processes stabilize the enviorment.

named after the Greek Earth goddess Gaea, holds that the Earth should be regarded as a living organism and that biological processes stabilize the environment.

Hypothesis that the Earth is alive and can be considered a system that operates and changes by feedback of information between its living and nonliving components.

The belief that the world is one enormous, living organism. From a rationalistic perspective, this is a metaphor the intimate interconnections between ecosystems and the way a small change in one can have a big influence. From a spiritual perspective, all aspects may be filled with life-force, affecting each other in ways beyond material measurement.

postulates that the earth behaves like a living organism with living things and the environment evolving together..each affecting the other.

Named for the Greek Earth goddess Gaea, this hypothesis holds that the Earth should be regarded as a living organism. British biologist James Lovelock first advanced this idea in 1969.

The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological theory that proposes that the living matter of planet Earth functions like a single organism. An early recognition of some of the core assumptions of the Gaia hypothesis was given in the book Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas. It was first scientifically formulated in the 1960s by the independent research scientist James Lovelock, as a consequence of his work for NASA on methods of detecting life on Mars.