Is the Earth
a living being?

The amazing symbiosis of the plant world

She discovers that trees "talk" to each other, enabling trees with high-energy seeds to synchronize so-called mast years. Every 6 to 10 years, for example, oak trees produce so many acorns that animals cannot eat them all, leaving enough seeds for reproduction. The remaining years, they produce fewer acorns so that the number of animals eating them does not become too large. If the trees did not coordinate, their survival would be threatened.

But how do they communicate? Initial studies show that they exchange pheromones through the air, but also messenger substances that are transmitted via a fungal network. They even communicate when an individual is infested with a pest. All trees in the network then increase their defenses, even though they themselves are not yet affected.

Plants even feed specific bacteria around their roots with specific sugar compounds. Interestingly, these bacteria belong to the same four strains that humans have in their intestines. In return, these bacteria provide the plants with nutrients and protect them from pathogenic fungi and bacteria.

The impressive network of whales and_CO2

Or let's take a look at an astonishing global network of whales and_CO2! The building material of our cells is largely carbon in various compounds, which plants obtain from the air, namely from_CO2. Through photosynthesis, they convert_CO2 into carbon compounds and oxygen. As herbivores, animals obtain carbon directly from plants, and as carnivores, they also obtain it indirectly from plants via the animals they eat. In this way, whales, probably the heaviest animals that ever populated the world, store an average of 33 tons of carbon. When they die, they often sink to the bottom of the sea, where decomposition hardly takes place due to a lack of oxygen. The carbon therefore remains there for centuries. Conversely, we only need to nurture and care for the whale population in the oceans to reduce_CO2 in the atmosphere.

That's simply brilliant! Our ecosystems are bursting with useful "technologies" and know-how that we could learn from.

To quote Goethe:

The smallest product of nature has its circle of perfection within itself, and if I only have eyes to see, I can discover the relationships; and I am sure that within a small circle, an entire true existence is contained.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Letters to Duchess Louise, December 12–23, 1786, in Goethe's Letters, Volume 2:31.

Or, to put it simply: Nature is perfect; we just need to recognize the relationships. Complete knowledge is already contained in the smallest particle of nature.

Every particle counts

At the same time, however, it also means:

With every species that becomes extinct, a bundle of solutions is lost. And with every indigenous people that disappears, a group of people is lost who have been observing, describing, and living with these specific solutions for thousands of years.

Lucas Buchholz in "Kogi"

For some indigenous American peoples, such as the Kogi of Colombia, the solution is to recognize the Earth as a living being. For this indigenous people, whose culture and traditions have remained virtually unchanged for 4,000 years, everything is alive: the wind, the water, living creatures... In their native language, there is no word for enemy. They see it as their duty to restore balance by giving something back to the Earth when too much has been taken. When imbalances occur, they consider it natural for the Earth to strike back through natural disasters.

Gaia hypothesis or the Earth as an organism

In science, too, hypotheses repeatedly arise that the world is actually a giant organism. In his work "Theory of the Earth" (1788), Scottish scientist James Hutton compared the material cycles in the atmosphere, the ocean, and the soil to the circulation of blood in the body. In 1972, the highly acclaimed Gaia hypothesis was published by British scientist James Lovelock. (In Greek mythology, Gaia is the personification of the Earth and one of the first deities.) In it, Lovelock describes the Earth as a kind of living organism, a planetary entity that reacts to external stimuli as a whole and maintains its stability through complex control loops. The hypothesis is sometimes criticized and ridiculed in scientific circles, but much of it is now accepted and part of science. This is the case in geoscience, where there is talk of the Earth system.

In a sense, it is clear to science that the Earth is a system (=organism). Isn't it also completely clear to us? Is there any doubt that the world is not alive? Shouldn't we then also dare to take the step of perceiving the Earth as a being with its own needs? A living being whose needs we must take into account alongside our own?

If you are honest with yourself, is this thought so far-fetched? Don't you feel it too, the liveliness of the earth?