The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth [Paperback]

This book describes a set of observations about the life of our planet which may, one day, be recognized as one of the major discontinuities in human thought. If Lovelock turns out to be as right in his view of things as I believe he is, we will be viewing the Earth as a coherent system of life, self-regulating and self-changing, a sort of immense living organism.--Lewis Thomas --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

In his first book, "Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth", Jim Lovelock proposed a startling new theory of life: the Earth, its rocks, oceans, atmosphere and all living things, are part of one great organism, evolving over the vast span of geological time. In this sequel, he examines environmental and scientific issues in detail, including the greenhouse effect, acid rain, the depletion of the ozone layer, and the destruction of tropical forests. For this 2nd edition, he has updated the text throughout and added a new chapter on recent advances in our scientific knowledge. He sounds a warning of the damage man is doing to the health of the planet.

James Lovelock is an independent scientist, inventor, and author. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974 and in 1990 was awarded the first Amsterdam Prize for the Environment by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. One of his inventions is the electron capture detector, which was important in the development of environmental awareness. It revealed for the first time the ubiquitous distribution of pesticide residues. He co-operated with NASA and some of
his inventions were adopted in their programme of planetary exploration.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.