Life on Earth is hard to spot
dc.contributor.author | Lenton, TM | |
dc.contributor.author | Dutreuil, S | |
dc.contributor.author | Latour, B | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2020-06-05T07:29:34Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2020-05-16 | |
dc.description.abstract | The triumph of the Gaia hypothesis was to spot the extraordinary influence of Life on the Earth. ‘Life’ is the clade including all extant living beings, as distinct from ‘life’ the class of properties common to all living beings. ‘Gaia’ is Life plus its effects on habitability. Life’s influence on the Earth was hard to spot for several reasons: biologists missed it because they focused on life not Life; climatologists missed it because Life is hard to see in the Earth’s energy balance; Earth system scientists opted instead for abiotic or human-centred approaches to the Earth system; Scientists in general were repelled by teleological arguments that Life acts to maintain habitable conditions. Instead, we reason from organisms’ metabolisms outwards, showing how Life’s coupling to its environment has led to profound effects on Earth’s habitability. Recognising Life’s impact on Earth and learning from it could be critical to understanding and successfully navigating the Anthropocene. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Zentrum fur Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Vol. 7 (3), pp. 248-272 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1177/2053019620918939 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/121289 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | SAGE Publications | en_GB |
dc.rights | © The Author(s) 2020. Open access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). | en_GB |
dc.subject | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | en_GB |
dc.subject | Lovelock | en_GB |
dc.subject | Margulis | en_GB |
dc.subject | Earth system | en_GB |
dc.subject | evolution | en_GB |
dc.subject | feedback | en_GB |
dc.subject | Gaia | en_GB |
dc.subject | habitability | en_GB |
dc.subject | International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme | en_GB |
dc.subject | Life | en_GB |
dc.title | Life on Earth is hard to spot | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2020-06-05T07:29:34Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 2053-0196 | |
dc.description | This is the final version. Available on open access from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.journal | Anthropocene Review | en_GB |
dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en_GB |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2020-03-27 | |
rioxxterms.version | VoR | en_GB |
rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate | 2020-03-27 | |
rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | en_GB |
refterms.dateFCD | 2020-06-05T07:20:42Z | |
refterms.versionFCD | AM | |
refterms.dateFOA | 2020-06-05T07:29:53Z | |
refterms.panel | C | en_GB |
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as © The Author(s) 2020. Open access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).