The importance and influence of James Lovelock in geography - Essay Example

?Explore the importance and influence of James Lovelock in geography Introduction James Lovelock represents a new breed of scientists who are working to change the way that science in general and geography in particular is perceived. Lovelock operates independently as a scientist, an environmentalist and as a futurologist. Though Lovelock has postulated numerous ideas over time but he is most famously recognised for his Gaia hypothesis. This hypothesis postulates that the biosphere surrounding the Earth regulates itself independently and possesses the capacity to keep the planet’s environment in a healthy state. This regulation is carried out in the biosphere using several chemical and physical processes that tend to regulate the balance of nature repeatedly. However, Lovelock’s work has been met with scepticism in some circles around the world and there have been attempts at postulating ideas that stand in opposition to Lovelock’s ideas. 2. Life History James Lovelock was born to working class parents in Letchworth Garden City located in Hertfordshire, England. His parents had an overbearing stress for education given their own backgrounds as illiterate and semi-literate workers in manufacturing establishments. After the birth of Lovelock the family migrated to London where he developed a certain distaste for authority given his treatment at Strand School (Lovelock, 2001). After completing school Lovelock worked for a photography firm during the day and took evening classes at Birkbeck College. Following this he enrolled at Manchester University for a chemistry programme and received his degree in 1941. After a chemistry degree Lovelock took up medicine and received his Ph.D. in 1948 from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Lovelock’s education did not end here, instead, he travelled over to the United States in order to pursue a degree in medicine. After being awarded the prestigious Rockefeller Travelling Fellowship in Medicine in 1954, Lovelock chose to spend the period first at Harvard University and then at Yale University. This was followed by a D.Sc. degree in biophysics from London University in 1959 after which he joined the National Institute in London. However, Lovelock resigned only two years later in 1961 and took up teaching as a full time profession at Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. While he was at Baylor, Lovelock worked in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Lunar and Planetary Research. Three years later in 1964 Lovelock resigned his academic position in order to pursue independent scientific practice. Lovelock has contributions to the fields of geo-physiology and medical research as well as numerous investigative inventions to his name such as gas chromatography, electron capture detector, palladium trans-modulator and a tracer method for mass transport measurements in air and water masses (Ecolo, 2010). This paper will attempt to discuss the contributions of James Lovelock to science in general and to geography in particular. 3. Scientific Contributions 3.1. Electron Capture Detector and CFCs The electron capture detector is one of Lovelock’s most esteemed inventions. This device has enabled scientists to investigate the phenomenon of ozone depletion particularly the role played by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Lovelock was the first scientist to find that CFCs were pervasively present in the stratosphere although they were not a natural constituent (Lovelock, 1971). In an effort to quantify his findings Lovelock set out to measure the concentration levels of CFCs in the atmosphere on two different self funded expeditions. The first expedition took Lovelock to Ireland where he measured and found CFCs to be present in concentration levels of 60 parts per trillion. In particular the greatest concentration was seen from CFC-11 (Lovelock, et al., 1973). This confirmed that CFCs were abundantly available in the atmosphere. Another self funded expedition took Lovelock to the Antarctic where he collected over 50 different air samples and observed them. At that point in time Lovelock observed that CFCs could not produce a “conceivable hazard” (Lovelock, 1989) because he did not know that CFCs could release chlorine in order to decompose ozone. Other scientists have since augmented the work carried out by Lovelock and have confirmed a link between CFCs and ozone depletion in the stratosphere. 3.2. Work for NASA After becoming an independent scientist most of Lovelock’s work was carried out for the National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA) and was aimed at planetary exploration. One of the earliest and most prominent concerns of Lovelock’s work was to determine the possibility of life on Mars. Throughout the sixties and the seventies Lovelock worked in order to create instruments that could decipher any traces of life in the Martian heartland. NASA launched the Viking program in the late seventies in order to survey the surface of Mars to decipher is the chemical equilibrium on the planet was normal or disturbed. Lovelock theorised that if life existed on Mars then it would most certainly interact with the atmosphere and would thus modify it to whatever degree. If life were available anywhere on Mars then detecting it would be dependent on the detection of chemical changes in the Martian atmosphere. The measurements carried out by Lovelock proved that the Martian atmosphere was stable chemically given that it contained overwhelming amounts of carbon dioxide along with scant amounts of oxygen, methane and hydrogen. The investigation concluded that there were significant differences between the overall atmospheric composition of Mars and Earth so that the Martian atmosphere was chemically stable while the Earth’s atmosphere was dynamic. The static nature of the Martian atmosphere was taken as a significant sign of the fact that there was no life on Mars (Lovelock, 1965). Other investigations that were launched to investigate life on Mars are in agreement with Lovelock’s findings to this point in time. 3.3. Gaia The Gaia hypothesis was first expounded by Lovelock during the sixties while he was working for NASA as an independent scientist. The bulk of work performed by Lovelock during this time was concerned with detecting life on Mars (Lovelock, 1965) through the use of chemical detection methods. The work concerning Mars convinced Lovelock that the atmosphere of the Earth was meant to sustain life while the Martian atmosphere was hostile to life in all its forms. Lovelock expounded that the Earth was composed of living and non-living parts that worked in tandem as a large and complex system (Lovelock, 1972). This entire system was labelled by Lovelock as an organism and this organism was seen to act in order to preserve the achieved balance (Lovelock & Margulis, 1974). In more specific terms the Gaia part of the Earth was actually the biosphere of the Earth that acted in order to sponsor life on the planet. The Gaia hypothesis achieved wide acceptance within environmental circles but failed to score well with the scientific community due to a lack of supporting evidence. The hypothesis has come under wide critique from evolutionary biologists who bring natural selection into question given the overall Gaia concept. The Gaia hypothesis supports the idea that the biosphere is meant to protect and sponsor life while evolutionary mechanisms rely heavily on natural selection that tend to operate on each individual organism (Doolittle, 1981). This overbearing focus of natural selection lies in contradiction to the Gaia mechanism when it comes to achieving homeostasis on a planetary scale (Dawkins, 1999). Lovelock has responded to these criticisms using his models that delineate how multi species homeostasis is possible. One of the more famous of these models is Daisyworld where white and black daisies achieve homeostasis on an imagined planet. The argument presented by Lovelock was supported strongly by a simulation that simulated life on the planet with extra terrestrial inputs such as sunlight. The planet initially starts out with black daises that tend to reflect most of the light back to the atmosphere until the temperature rises to levels that are unfavourable for black daises. Consequently, the raised temperatures are suitable for the growth of white daises. The white daises then grow unchecked and the temperature begins to decrease as the albedo is lower. As a result the planetary temperature begins to settle down till an equilibrium is achieved between black and white daises (Watson & Lovelock, 1983) (Lenton & Lovelock, 2001). As per Lovelock the impact of human disturbance on the Gaia is forcing the planet’s biosphere to respond stronger than ever in order to restore the balance of nature. This move by Gaia to restore the original balance is causing current meteorological problems and may cause human death and destruction on colossal scales in the future. This phenomenon has been labelled by Lovelock as “revenge of Gaia”. 4. Gaia’s Revenge In one of his most recent works Lovelock has argued that human interference has made the Gaia unstable and susceptible to permanent change for the worst. His book titled The Revenge of Gaia was released in 2006 and details different methods through which human beings are trespassing on Gaia’s domain making it unstable and unable to recover itself back to its stable state. Among other things Lovelock has indicated that the decimation of rainforests and biodiversity around the globe is leading to a massive reduction in Gaia’s capacity to regulate itself. Gaia has to re-stabilise itself given the large quantities of carbon dioxide that have been released into the atmosphere but the underscoring effects initiated by human beings are reducing Gaia’s capacity for stabilisation. As a result of human actions the capacity of Gaia to deal with negative feedback using positive homeostatic feedback is decreasing and this in turn is leading to runaway global warming. This has had the effect of increasing water levels in the oceans leading to disturbances in the food chain mechanisms at work there. In addition, the human removal of forests and other sources of carbon dioxide are leading to decimation of the carbon dioxide removal system. As per Lovelock the removal of this kind of buffer will only lead to exacerbation of temperatures such that most of the earth masses will turn into deserts. This will make the planet uninhabitable for large tracts of the human population and may lead to massive drought and famine. In another work The Vanishing Face of Gaia Lovelock has predicted that the earth’s self regulation mechanism may already be out of control and may possibly be beyond recovery now (Lovelock, 2009). In recent years Lovelock has suggested that human population levels may decrease by about 80% by the year 2100 in the face of climate change that may last for as long as some 200,000 years without end. Lovelock has matched this change to similar circumstances that arose some 55 million years ago and lasted for some 200,000 years (Lovelock, 2007). Based on his ideas Lovelock has called for humans to put an end to their wasteful activities in order to cull the chances of global warming (Hickman, 2010). Without a doubt James Lovelock is one of the more influential scientists and geographers of our times. His work on inter-planetary exploration and his subsequent theorisation of Gaia and other mechanisms that tend to restore the balance of nature are ground breaking. However, Lovelock’s ideas are not without critique though his responses such as Daisyland are more than adequate to deal with the criticism. The ideas of Lovelock as per global extinction due to global warming need to be looked into detail so that any dangers to human civilisation can be addressed in time. 5. References Dawkins, R., 1999. The Extended Phenotype. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Doolittle, W., 1981. Is nature really motherly?. The Coevolution Quarterly, Volume Spring, pp. 58-63. Ecolo, 2010. Detailed biography of James LOVELOCK. [Online] Available at: http://www.ecolo.org/lovelock/lovedeten.htm [Accessed 16 March 2012]. Hickman, L., 2010. James Lovelock: Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change. [Online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/mar/29/james-lovelock-climate-change [Accessed 16 March 2012]. Lenton, T. M. & Lovelock, J. E., 2001. Daisyworld revisited: quantifying biological effects on planetary self-regulation. Tellus Series B - Chemical and Physical Meterology, 53(3), p. 288–305. Lovelock, J., 1965. A physical basis for life detection experiments. Nature, 207(4997), pp. 568-570. Lovelock, J., 2001. Homage to Gaia: The Life of an Independent Scientist. 1st Edition ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lovelock, J. E., 1971. Atmospheric Fluorine Compounds as Indicators of Air Movements. Nature, 230(5293), p. 379. Lovelock, J. E., 1972. Gaia as seen through the atmosphere. Atmospheric Environment, 6(8), p. 579–580. Lovelock, J. E., 1989. The Ages of Gaia. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lovelock, J. E., 2007. Lovelock: "Respect the Earth". [Online] Available at: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=13998&LangType=2057&terms=lovelock [Accessed 16 March 2012]. Lovelock, J. E., 2009. The Vanishing Face of Gaia. London: Basic Books. Lovelock, J. E., Maggs, R. J. & Wade, R. J., 1973. Halogenated Hydrocarbons in and over the Atlantic. Nature, 241(5386), pp. 194-196. Lovelock, J. E. & Margulis, L., 1974. Atmospheric homeostasis by and for the biosphere – The Gaia hypothesis. Tellus, 26(1), pp. 2-10. Watson, A. J. & Lovelock, J. E., 1983. Biological homeostasis of the global environment: the parable of Daisyworld. Tellus B (International Meteorological Institute), 35(4), p. 286–289. Read More