The Earth immune system is a controversial proposal, claimed to be a consequence of the Gaia hypothesis. The Gaia hypothesis holds that the entire earth may be considered a single organism (Gaia). As a self-maintaining organism, Earth would possess an immune system of some sort in order to maintain its health.
Some proponents of this speculative concept, for example, hold that humankind can be considered an "infection" of Gaia, and that AIDS is an attempt by this immune system to reject the infection. "Cancer" might be a more accurate term, as humans evolved within Gaia, and are not external invaders. An opposite view is that humankind is Gaia's immune system itself, perhaps evolved to avert future catastrophes such as the Permian and Cretaceous mass extinctions of species.
James Lovelock's book "Gaia's Revenge" suggests that Gaia has many mechanisms for eliminating civilisations that do harm through greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, but suggests that with increasing heat being received from the sun, Gaia's ability to "bounce back" as it did after the Permian and Cretaceous extinction events, may be increasingly compromised.
Famous quotes containing the words immune system, earth, immune and/or system:
“The moral immune system of this country has been weakened and attacked, and the AIDS virus is the perfect metaphor for it. The malignant neglect of the last twelve years has led to breakdown of our countrys immune system, environmentally, culturally, politically, spiritually and physically.”
—Barbra Streisand (b. 1942)
“... You could sit there with the stains on your shoes
Of the fresh earth from your own babys grave
And talk about your everyday concerns.
You had stood the spade up against the wall
Outside there in the entry, for I saw it.”
—Robert Frost (18741963)
“The moral immune system of this country has been weakened and attacked, and the AIDS virus is the perfect metaphor for it. The malignant neglect of the last twelve years has led to breakdown of our countrys immune system, environmentally, culturally, politically, spiritually and physically.”
—Barbra Streisand (b. 1942)
“The pace of science forces the pace of technique. Theoretical physics forces atomic energy on us; the successful production of the fission bomb forces upon us the manufacture of the hydrogen bomb. We do not choose our problems, we do not choose our products; we are pushed, we are forcedby what? By a system which has no purpose and goal transcending it, and which makes man its appendix.”
—Erich Fromm (19001980)