James Lovelock is an independent atmospheric scientist who lives and works deep in the English countryside. He has a knack for making discoveries of global significance. Lovelock is the inventor of the electron capture detector, a palm-size chamber that detects man-made chemicals in minute concentrations. In the late 1950s, his detector was used to demonstrate that pesticide residues were present in virtually all species on Earth, from penguins in Antarctica to mother's milk in the United States. This provided the hard data for Rachel Carson's landmark 1962 environmental book, "The Silent Spring" which launched the international campaign to ban the pesticide DDT.
In the late 1960s, Lovelock sailed from Britain to Antarctica and with his detector discovered the ubiquitous presence of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), man-made gases now known to deplete the stratospheric ozone layer.
Today, Lovelock is best known as author of the "Gaia hypothesis," named after Gaea, Greek goddess of earth. The hypothesis states that the global ecosystem sustains and regulates itself like a biological organism rather than an inanimate entity run by the automatic and accidental processes of geology, as traditional earth science holds. In essence, Lovelock's hypothesis sees the surface of the Earth as more like a living body than a rock or a machine.
He first conceived the Gaia hypothesis while working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in the mid-1960s, where he was designing life detection instruments for NASA's Mars Viking probes.
The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the Earth (atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere) are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on Earth in a preferred homeostasis. Originally proposed by James Lovelock as the earth feedback hypothesis,[1] it was named the Gaia Hypothesis after the Greek supreme goddess of Earth.[2] The hypothesis is frequently described as viewing the Earth as a single organism. Lovelock and other supporters of the idea now call it Gaia theory, regarding it as a scientific theory and not mere hypothesis, since they believe it has passed predictive tests.[3]
The Gaia hypothesis 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.[4][5] He initially published the Gaia Hypothesis in journal articles in the early 1970s[6][7] followed by a popularizing 1979 book Gaia: A new look at life on Earth.
The theory was initially, according to Lovelock, a way to explain the fact that combinations of chemicals including oxygen and methane persist in stable concentrations in the atmosphere of the Earth. Lovelock suggested using such combinations detected in other planets' atmospheres would be a relatively reliable and cheap way to detect life, which many biologists opposed at the time and since. Later other relationships such as the fact that sea creatures produce sulfur and iodine in approximately the quantities required by land creatures emerged and helped bolster the theory. Rather than invent many different theories to describe each such equilibrium, Lovelock dealt with them holistically, naming this self-regulating living system after the Greek goddess Gaia, using a suggestion from the novelist William Golding, who was living in the same village as Lovelock at the time (Bowerchalke, Wiltshire, UK). The Gaia Hypothesis has since been supported by a number of scientific experiments[8] and provided a number of useful predictions,[9] and hence is properly referred to as the Gaia Theory.
Since 1971, the noted microbiologist Dr. Lynn Margulis has been Lovelock's most important collaborator in developing Gaian concepts.[10]
Until 1975 the hypothesis was almost totally ignored. An article in the New Scientist of February 15, 1975, and a popular book length version of the theory, published in 1979 as The Quest for Gaia, began to attract scientific and critical attention to the hypothesis. The theory was then attacked by many mainstream biologists. Championed by certain environmentalists and climate scientists, it was vociferously rejected by many others, both within scientific circles and outside them.
Lovelock's initial hypothesis
James Lovelock defined Gaia as:
a complex entity involving the Earth's biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.
Those who love wild nature and work toward a day when humankind might inhabit this abundant planet with greater wonder, humility, and compassion, mourn the loss of a great ecological visionary - Arne Naess - who died on January 12, leaving behind a legacy of environmental awareness and action.
Naess, one of the most influential philosophers of his generation, died in his sleep at the age of 96 in Oslo, Norway. The avid mountaineer founded the Deep Ecology movement, drawing inspiration from Buddhism, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, and above all from nature itself. Greenpeace can be proud that he served as the first chairman of Greenpeace Norway in 1988. His personal story illuminates the path of ecology in the 21st century.
Arne Naess at the opening of the Greenpeace office in Oslo, 1988 (c) Henrik Laurvik NTB/Scanpix - used under licence
On the mountain
Naess was born in 1912, in Slemdal, near Oslo, and his father, banker Ragnar Naess, died the next year. Naess later recalled that his mother, Christine Dekke, appeared preoccupied with raising his two older brothers, so he often wandered alone into nature for companionship.
In How My Philosophy Seemed to Develop he revealed, at the age of four, "I would stand or sit for hours … in shallow water on the coast, marvelling at the overwhelming diversity and richness of life in the sea."
At the age of 17, while climbing on Norway's Hallingskarvet massif, he met a kind Norwegian judge, who also adored nature. This mentor advised young Arne to read Dutch Jewish philosopher Spinoza, who equated the 'highest virtue' with knowledge of nature. For Spinoza, Naess learned, all thinking about truth and human society begins with recognising the basic 'substance', the diversity and magnificence of the natural world.
In his 20s, Naess built a life-long writing cabin, Tvergastein, high on this mountain. "In the mountains," Naess once said, "you are small compared to the surrounding view, so you more easily and more intensely feel that you are a part of something greater. You find that your idea of your 'self' is more vast and deeper." This depth he felt in vast nature - mountains, sea, forests - inspired his use of the word 'deep' to describe his understanding of ecology
Reports claim government will delay unveiling of incentive regime for the second time this month
The Italian government yesterday revealed that it had delayed the unveiling of a much-anticipated solar incentive scheme for a second time, stoking fears that the uncertainty could derail the country's booming solar industry.
Officials told news agency Reuters that the plan would not be presented today, as had been widely anticipated. They added that a new date had not yet been set for the launch of the scheme.
The announcement had originally been expected on 11 February, but was delayed amid speculation that the government had yet to finalise the scale of proposed cuts to solar industry incentives.
Italy currently operates one of the most generous feed-in tariffs for solar power in the world and the government is widely expected to reduce the payments that solar panel installers receive in line with the falling cost of panels.
Gianni Chianetta, chief executive of BP Solar Italia, told Reuters that the delays were undermining confidence in the market.
"We have made investment plans... for the next few years hoping that there will be a new incentive plan and that it will be sustainable," he said in a statement to the news agency. "But many of the planned initiatives in terms of investments and new job creation have been put on hold awaiting clarity. Further delays would create distrust in Italy and divert the group's investments to other countries."
However, there was some good news for the industry after media reports suggested the scale of the cuts in the feed-in tariff being considered by the government were lower than originally expected.
The whole of the world's instrumental temperature record – millions of observations dating back more than 150 years – is to be re-analysed in an attempt to remove doubts about the reality of global warming.
The new analysis, an enormous task which will be carried out by several groups of scientists working independently in different countries, has been proposed by the UK Met Office in the wake of recent controversies over climate science, such as the "climategate" email affair at the University of East Anglia and revelations that the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contained inaccuracies and exaggerations.
The whole of the world's instrumental temperature record – millions of observations dating back more than 150 years – is to be re-analysed in an attempt to remove doubts about the reality of global warming.
The new analysis, an enormous task which will be carried out by several groups of scientists working independently in different countries, has been proposed by the UK Met Office in the wake of recent controversies over climate science, such as the "climategate" email affair at the University of East Anglia and revelations that the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contained inaccuracies and exaggerations.
The proposal was put to the World Meteorological Organisation by the Met Office at a meeting in Antalya, Turkey, earlier this week, and accepted by 150 delegates from around the world. Its detailed terms will be agreed at a conference to be held in Britain later this year.
Italian officials warned of an ecological disaster as they scrambled to contain an oil spill that reached the the Po river yesterday.
Milan regional officials said the cause was certainly sabotage at a former refinery turned oil depot on the tributary Lambro river. While no arrests have been made, Italian news reports have noted that the depot owner had laid off several workers in recent months.
There were varying accounts of the amount of oil released: officials in Milan said they now believed 2.5 million litres had poured out, but environmental groups put the quantity at 600,000 litres.
The WWF wildlife charity said several water and bird species were at risk from the spill, with fish, wild ducks and herons – that were beginning to nest along the Po – the most at risk. Several oil-covered ducks have already been plucked from the river and taken for treatment at a regional animal shelter.
But even after the spill is cleaned up the impact will last, the WWF said, as the Po river valley is the most important agricultural region in Italy, and the Po is used extensively for irrigation, environmentalists noted. The spill began on Tuesday at the depot near Monza and spread south down the Lambro to Piacenza and Cremona overnight, despite efforts to contain it. By yesterday, it had reached the Po, which crosses the country from Piedmont in the west, across Turin and Ferrara, before emptying into the Adriatic.
"The scale of this is dramatic," said Damiano di Simine, regional president of the Legambiente environmental group. He said his organisation – as well as the regional government – had asked that a state of emergency be declared to release federal funds to help contain it.
The Lombard regional president, Roberto Formigoni, said those responsible would be prosecuted and punished severely for the "ecological disaster". "Some criminal decided to intervene in a harmful and cowardly way, putting at risk an asset that belongs to all of us," he was quoted as saying by the Apcom news agency.
Social Ecology versus Deep Ecology: A Challenge for the Ecology Movement
by Murray Bookchin
[Originally published in Green Perspectives: Newsletter of the Green Program Project, nos. 4-5 (summer 1987). In the original, the term deep ecology appeared in quotation marks; they have been removed in this online posting.]
The environmental movement has traveled a long way since those early Earth Day festivals when millions of school kids were ritualistically mobilized to clean up streets, while Arthur Godfrey, Barry Commoner, Paul Ehrlich, and a bouquet of manipulative legislators scolded their parents for littering the landscape with cans, newspapers, and bottles.
The movement has gone beyond a naive belief that patchwork reforms and solemn vows by EPA bureaucrats to act more resolutely will seriously arrest the insane pace at which we are tearing down the planet. This shopworn Earth Day approach to engineering nature so that we can ravage the Earth with minimal effect on ourselves---an approach that I called environmentalism in the late 1960s, in contrast to social ecology---has shown signs of giving way to a more searching and radical mentality. Today the new word in vogue is ecology---be it deep ecology, human ecology, biocentric ecology, antihumanist ecology, or to use a term that is uniquely rich in meaning, social ecology.
Spiral Island is the name given to two world famous floating artificial islands built by British expatriate and eco-pioneer Richart "Rishi" Sowa.
Sowa, a musician, artist, and carpenter started constructing the original Spiral Island in 1998 in the Maya Riveria of Mexico. The first Spiral island was located in a lagoon near Puerto Aventuras, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico south of Cancún. Rishi began filling nets with empty discarded plastic bottles to support a structure of plywood and bamboo, on which he poured sand and planted numerous plants, including mangroves. The floating bottle island sported a two-story palapa structure, a solar oven, a self-composting toilet, and three beaches. Some 250,000 bottles were used to construct the 66 feet (20 m) by 54 feet (16 m) floating island structure. Rishi planted mangroves to help keep the island cool, and some of the mangroves rose up to 15 feet (4.6 m) high.
Richie Sowa (Re)Builds Mexican Island Paradise on 250,000 Recycled Floating Bottles
If you can’t afford to buy your own tropical island paradise, why not build your own? That is exactly what Richie Sowa did back in 1998, from over a quarter-million plastic bottles. His Spiral Island, destroyed years later by a hurricane, sported a two-story house, solar oven, self-composting toilet and multiple beaches. Better yet, he has started building another one! His ultimate goal? To build the island bigger and bigger and finally float out to sea, traveling the world from the comfort of his own private paradise.
The original Spiral Island was (as its successor will be) built upon a floating collection used plastic bottles, all netted together to support a bamboo and plywood structure above. Located in Mexico, the original was 66 by 54 feet and was able to support full-sized mangroves to provide shade and privacy, yet also able to be moved from place to place by its creator as need with a simple motorized system.
An environmentalist to the core, Sowa is also an artist and a musician. More than just the universal dream of an island retreat, Spiral Island is also his vision for low-impact sustainable living. The next version of the island will be built to withstand more treacherous weather than the first and will also be located in a more sheltered part of Mexico’s waters.
The Above Ripley’s Believe-it-or-Not video is a great introduction to the island, which conjures images of Gilligan-done-right. Spiral island is able to exist and move about in Mexico in part because it is classified as a ship, not an island, like an atoll out of WaterWorld (only much much cooler). On September 7, 2007 the new Spiral Islander social network utility was opened to the public to allow visitors, Spiral Islanders and friends of Richie Sowa to connect and communicate about the history of Spiral Island and to learn more and discuss Richie Sowa’s new Spiral Island. Want more islands? See these 7 Island Wonders of the World from WebUrbanist.
A treaty to protect the ozone layer, which shields all life on Earth from deadly levels of ultra violet rays, has scored a first in the history of international environmental agreements.
The underground water supplies, upon which 1.5 million Palestinians depend for agricultural and drinking water, are in danger of collapse as a result of years of over-use and contamination that have been exacerbated by the recent conflict.
The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are calling for the widespread uptake of 'green' agricultural practices that will deliver multiple benefits to the world's rapidly growing populations
Iraq wants to eliminate ozone depleting substances (ODS) such as CFCs from its refrigeration and foam industries by 1 January 2010 in accordance with the target set under the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty set up to protect the ozone layer.
You are invited to attend the launch of the world's first international commission on the catastrophic loss of the world's ecosystems. Legislators will argue that Governments are failing to stop the destruction of the world's ecosystems at a summit in Nairobi on the 18/19 July.
The heads of five international organizations have joined the international campaign to galvanize public support for a successful outcome to UN-sponsored climate change negotiations by signing a global petition addressed to world leaders.
In a keynote address to Chatham House in London, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said G8 leaders have a golden opportunity to focus political action towards powering forward a Green Economy future.
In an effort to green the Sochi Olympics in 2014, UNEP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Russian Olympic organizers to help and advise them on making the Games environmentally friendly.
A new decision-making tool is being launched to provide the most current and relevant information about marine and coastal biodiversity and its protection status.
Hopes that a comprehensive climate agreement can be agreed in Copenhagen in December were given encouragement after leaders of the world's eight major economic powers agreed to broad goals for reducing global warming at the G8 meeting in L'Aquila.
16 top CEOs from China have attended a workshop at the UN Environment Programme headquarters to learn more about what the agency is doing in the Green Economy initiatives, combating climate change, international campaigns, green construction, reforestation and the green technology.
Achim Steiner, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), today welcomed the 'Green Growth' Declaration by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) saying it underlined the way environment was rapidly being brought into the centre of economic discourse and policy-making. Ministers from 40 countries said: "Well targeted policy instruments can be used to encourage green investment in order to simultaneously contribute to economic recovery in the short-term and help to build the environmentally-friendly infrastructure required in the long term—the crisis should not be used as an excuse to postpone crucial decisions for the future of the planet".
At least 21 UN agencies today backed the call for a world-wide transition to a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy able to deliver multiple economic, social and environmental opportunities in the 21st century. Such a transition is needed to catalyze a sustainable global economic recovery while generating decent jobs, enhancing food security, and reducing dependence on finite fossil fuels. A Green Economy can also address multiple persistent and looming crises from overcoming poverty and combating climate change to reversing the degradation of multi-trillion dollar ecosystems and their services, experts argue.
On the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Bonn Convention, the Russian Federation has enhanced its support for the conservation of the Saiga antelope by signing the relevant agreement established in the framework of the Convention. The Saiga antelope is one of most rapidly declining land mammal species worldwide. While one million of the ungulates still traveled through the Eurasian steppe as recently as the early 90s, their populations have dwindled to less than 100,000 animals today.
"The world faces a growing risk of "abrupt and irreversible climatic shifts," was the conclusion of report by international scientists issued on Thursday. The 36-page document summarized over 1,400 studies which were presented at a climate conference last March in Copenhagen attended by some 2,000 scientists from over 70 countries. The research, which was written and reviewed by many of the scientists who compiled the benchmark UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2007, presents the newest scientific evidence that warns that ocean temperatures, sea levels, extreme climate conditions and the retreat of the Arctic sea ice have picked up more pace than experts predicted two years ago.
A scientific paper, highlighting the need to accelerate action over a group of gases known as Hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) as part of the climate change agenda, was today welcomed by the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The findings, by an international team of researchers are published in the Proceeedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The scientists argue that HFC use could climb sharply in the coming years in products such as insulation foams, air conditioning units and refrigeration as replacements for ones being phased-out to protect the ozone layer.
The workshop is designed to increase knowledge of national obligations regarding the unintentional emissions of POPs and the ESM of PCBs and POPs waste under the Stockholm Convention.
The new "Frankfurt Declaration" highlights major threats to gorillas and their habitats, as well as the strategies available for the conservation of the second closest relative to humankind.
Echoing the 'Healing the Earth' ceremonies of Mexico's ancient Mayan civilization, President Calderon announced on World Environment Day his government's landmark plans to combat climate change alongside the establishment of new protected areas.
James Lovelock is an independent atmospheric scientist who lives and works deep in the English countryside. He has a knack for making discoveries of global significance. Lovelock is the inventor of the electron capture detector, a palm-size chamber that detects man-made chemicals in minute concentrations. In the late 1950s, his detector was used to demonstrate that pesticide residues were present in virtually all species on Earth, from penguins in Antarctica to mother's milk in the United States. This provided the hard data for Rachel Carson's landmark 1962 environmental book, "The Silent Spring" which launched the international campaign to ban the pesticide DDT. 
The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the Earth (atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere) are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on Earth in a preferred homeostasis. Originally proposed by James Lovelock as the earth feedback hypothesis,
The whole of the world's instrumental temperature record – millions of observations dating back more than 150 years – is to be re-analysed in an attempt to remove doubts about the reality of global warming. 
