Gaia:

Whole Earth Chemistry: The Gaia Phenomena

First formulated as an hypothesis by James Lovelock, while he was working as a consultant to NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1961, it was strongly opposed by the scientific mainstream at first. Initially, Lovelock only got public support from Lynn Margulis, who later collaborated more directly with him, and the Swedish chemist, Lars Gunnar Sillen.

• Gaia As Scientific Hypothesis ...

      As amended by Lynn Margulis, states more or less that all
 life on Earth, as well as the oceans, the atmosphere, and the
 earth itself are parts of a single, all-encompassing symbiosis,
 and even could be considered as elements of a single oragnism.
 

• Gaia As California Trendy ...

      Made possible by the Earth photographs, courtesy of NASA 
 ( government is good for some things ), which inspired Stuart
 Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog phenomenon in the '70s. See 
 also the Institute for Noetic Sciences. 
 ( I'm not against New Age as such, or even California trendy,
 except that coffee-table science sometimes gets confused
 with professional science. ) 



• Gaia As Traditional Metaphysics ...

      Tibetan Buddhists , Hopi Traditions , & Other Theosophies
    The basic idea is that both the animals and the forces of
 nature as such are considered to have a psychological component,
 as well as a purely physical one. Thus both what we do to   nature and our attitudes are considred to have a potentially
 immediate effect and reaction, The anthropologists call this  'animism', but whether one is responsible to the planet for
 personal reasons ( 'respecting our relatices' ) or impersonal
 reasons ( fear of global warming ) the important thing is to be
 MORE RESPONSIBLE to the planet as such! { END OF SERMON.]