“Permaculture - Bring Back Gaia!” Commentary by Willi Paul, Planetshifter.com Magazine
I asked one of my recent interviewees if the Earth could be keystone specie? Consider the following “WIKI home office journey” that connects keystone specie with ecosystem, our solar system and the Milky Way Galaxy and finally to permaculture and Gaia.
Four images are provided –“Permaculture in Gaia.”
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Is the Earth a specie?
A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms capable of inter-breeding and producing fertile offspring.
• Sounds like the Earth, right?
Is the Earth a keystone specie?
A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance.
• Yes the Earth plays a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community.
• The Earth affects many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community.
• Yes, the Earth is the # 1 keystone species.
Is the Earth an ecosystem?
As ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among organisms, and between organisms and their environment, they can be of any size but usually encompass specific, limited spaces (although some scientists say that the entire planet is an ecosystem)
• The Earth helps to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community.
• Yes, the Earth plays a critical role in maintaining the structure of a global ecosystem.
• Does the Earth affect many other organisms in a global ecosystem?
Is Gaia (Earth spirit) is a keystone specie of our solar system?
Gaia was revived in 1979 by James Lovelock, in Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. The Gaia hypothesis proposes that living organisms and inorganic material are part of a dynamic system that shapes the Earth's biosphere, and maintains the Earth as a fit environment for life. In some Gaia theory approaches, the Earth itself is viewed as an organism with self-regulatory functions.
• The Earth is part of our solar system and the Milky Way Galaxy ecosystem.
• Gaia is helping to generate a new mythology as the keystone ecosystem for all life.
Can Permaculture integrate Nature-lore, alchemy, Transition, new ritual, the sacred and new mythology to foster greater healing?
• Humans are no longer a keystone species on Earth but a threatened species.
• To many, the Earth is a thing. To some, Gaia is our global Mother.
• Permaculture is a new Nature and community-based food technology connected to Gaia.
• Permaculture is capable of inclusivity and can assist in reversing global warming as a spiritual source for Gaia.
Replies
There is "scared" instead of "sacred" in that last question.
This comment will be about the other side of the "dynamic system".
It seems that Putin will leave the eastern part of Ukraine to the West to do their stuff. It's very difficult to understand what's going on right now and how to prevent it. The Occupy Movement, perpetual wars driven by soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, miners and workers exploited (or worse) in Africa and Asia, drug cartels with their "tax relief" and addicted customers, they are all symptoms of the same thing. The system is adapted for the rich to get richer and the poor poorer. If Americans, with all those cheap goods and fuel, feel that they need to occupy something, they should see the other guy.
Capitalism has two forms: it either promotes "free market" (anything goes as long as the rich get richer) or Russian-style oligarchs (an idea exported from America and interpreted in other countries). It was a "clash of the Titans" in Ukraine. Since the "free market" version is globalized and interconnected (and richer after every conflict), it's relatively easy for it to take over the opponents one by one and just move an increasing amount of money from one place to another. Especially if they invite it to come in, if they think they will be given an opportunity to get rich or less poor if they work hard (No, the rich will again get richer and the poor poorer and in debts), if they kill for it.
Ivan Illich in Tools for Conviviality (http://www.mom.arq.ufmg.br/mom/arq_interface/3a_aula/illich_tools_f...) mentions two watersheds: when the system serves the system and when the system serves the system. The final stage is, according to Illich, the collapse. It's interesting to me that some designers of the first watershed (Paul Craig Roberts and his book How America Was Lost and Gerhard Schroeder) took the "pro-Russian" side during the crisis in Ukraine.