James Lovelock was among the pioneers of an idea that actually has ancient and living precedents everywhere. His Gaia hypothesis -- the idea that the earth itself is a giant organism, albeit non-sentient -- has been enormously influential in the way that ecologists deal with problems. It's no secret, however, that many animistic cultures have long harboured similar ideas with regards to the interconnectedness of things such as wind, ocean currents, soil, and plant and animal life. I would be remiss to write an RIP message without acknowledging the deep pool of Indigenous knowledge that implies the Gaia hypothesis.
That said, the world has lost one of the only people brave enough to acknowledge the scientific validity of Indigenous knowledge in the sense that his own theory is ideologically compatible and continuous with this knowledge. It is perhaps a sign of things to come that he dies, aged 103, as the Pope visits Canada in order to apologize for the Catholic Church's role in the country's ongoing genocide of its Indigenous population? An integral part of this genocide is negating and discounting Indigenous knowledge. A sign of what, though? Healing? The death of big ideas? Who knows.
RIP to all the children who died in Canada's Residential School system. RIP James Lovelock. May the earth do what it needs to now to preserve its living system against what endangers it.
