From Malcolm Shute
One of the dangers of Gaia theory – that life steers the environment in its favour – is that we might be tempted to rely on it as a sort of omnipotent safety net that will save us from any mess the planet gets into. Luckily, your recent article (26 October, p 30) pours doubt on Gaia’s past role.
Even if the theory were right, it might not have been able to save us. Even Gaia could not know what would hit in the future, just as inductive logic’s free-range chicken, while noting that the sun has always risen in the past, is oblivious to the glint of the farmer’s axe. Gaia could be dealt a fatal blow by a supernova, asteroid, or the collapse of Earth’s magnetic field.
La Tour d’Aigues, France
