Some Basic Questions:
"Gaia" bids fair to becoming the most important nodal idea of the coming century, for it is the only word we have that refers to humanity-in-nature as a single system. Thus it embodies the post- Cartesian insight that humanity is a part of, and not apart from, nature. In contrast, the word "environment" has the connotations of "background," to which humanity is the "foreground." These connotations have contributed to the marginalization of environmentalism in the popular media in recent years. Most people think of "the environment" as something "out there," remote from their everyday concerns--something relegated to p. 67 of TIME Magazine.
The concept of "Gaia" is also interdisciplinary, in that it bridges the yawning Cartesian gap between science and humanities.. Gaia in its largest sense can be looked on simultaneously as a myth, a model, a metaphor, and a movement:
The Ancient Greek name for the all-nurturing and all- consuming Earth-Mother-Goddess, the oldest of their deities; a goddess with analogues in virtually every culture on Earth, suggesting that most human cultures (at least until ours) had an intuitive sense of participating in a living, breathing ecology.
Developed in the 1970's by biochemist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis, the Gaia hypothesis suggests that the processes of life itself have shaped, and continue to maintain, the thermal, geographic, and atmospheric conditions that sustain life. Life and the Earth have coevolved in a single closely coupled feedback system.
Based on the Lovelock/Margulis hypothesis and on the cybernetic thinking that spawned it, "Gaia" has become a widely used metaphor for the emerging philosophical and ethical perspective that emphasizes humanity's embeddedness in, and dependence upon, the natural world. It denotes a systemic, cross-disciplinary, ecological approach to thinking about human culture as a part of nature, rather than apart from it.
What used to be called the "environmental movement" is rapidly evolving into a Gaia movement, global in scope, that includes but transcends traditional environmentalism. The Gaia movement calls for a fundamental shift in the priorities of western (and now global) culture from a relentlessly parasitic civilization based on endless, nonsustainable economic "growth" at the expense of nature towards a sustainable world order based on ecological principles and respect for both natural and cultural diversity.
The main purpose of GAIA International is therefore to provide a "local habitation and a name" for the worldwide Gaia Movement--to make Gaia a household word; a mechanism for bringing Gaian thinking from the globally unconscious level (i.e. the province of a growing handful of scientists, poets, and visionaries, working largely in isolation) to full global consciousness (i.e the academic and cultural mainstream).
The principal role of GAIA International is to play host; that is, to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue and research among scholars, educators, and citizens who are pursuing various aspects of Gaian theory and practice, and thereby to increase the visibility of Gaian thinking in the academic and societal mainstream. Its other purpose is to actively promote Gaian practice--i.e. ecological awareness and responsibility--in the general public, and to exchange information and collaborate (within the scope of an educational organization) with environmental groups Accordingly, the activities of GAIA International will include the following:
--make active use of emerging Internet technologies to facilitate a continuous global dialogue on ecological concerns and Gaian alternatives to the status quo. Our current projects include the GAIA- L mailing list, which is facilitating communication among people worldwide who are interested in Gaian theory and practice, and our GAIA International website, which offers cross-links to a wide variety of organizations involved in various aspects of global ecological activism, education, and research.
-- develop a quarterly publication, "Gaia Quarterly," on all aspects of Gaian theory and practice. Initially, this will be an online journal, offered through our website.
--promulgate "The Quiet Revolution," an ongoing public education/collaborative fundraising campaign based on the three themes of sustainable living--Good Buy, Good Work, Good Will. Develop educational materials and publications based on elaborating these themes, along with publicity items (T-Shirts, Posters, etc.) for this purpose, to market in a collaborative fundraising arrangement with environmental groups, community groups, churches, etc.
--develop a set of criteria for chartering largely autonomous, self- sustaining chapters of GAIA International on college campuses, whose obligations to the parent organization will be limited to staying within the established guidelines (e.g. sponsoring educational activities and participating in "The Quiet Revolution") and paying a reasonable annual licensing fee. Chapters will plan lecture series and other campus workshops and events to promote Gaian theory and practice on their campuses and in their communities.
Further possibilities down the line might include videos or multimedia projects, talk shows, lecture circuits for Gaian visionaries, and whatever else might get people to identify with, and assume responsibility for, the Earth, and therefore to include the health of the planet within their domain of everyday ethical awareness. One possibility might be to develop some long-range plans for a global electronic multimedia extravaganza at the turn of the millenium called "GAIA 2000"--in effect to announce to the entire world that a paradigm shift has occurred; that the industrial age has given way to the Gaian century.
As Norman Myers has wisely said, "We have two choices: a Gaian future, or no future."
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