Overview
Modern science and western culture both teach that the planet we inhabit is a dead and passive lump of matter, but as Stephan Harding points out, this wasn't always the prevailing sentiment and in Animate Earth he sets out to explain how these older notions of an animate earth can be explained in rational, scientific terms. In this astounding book Harding lays out the facts and theories behind one of the most controversial notions to come out of the hard sciences arguably since Sir Isaac Newton's Principia or the first major publications to come out of the Copenhagen School regarding quantum mechanics. The latter is an important parallel: Whereas quantum mechanics is a science of the problem--it gave rise to the atomic bomb among other things--Gaia Theory in this age of global warming and dangerous climate change is a science of the solution. Its utility: Healing a dying planet becomes an option in a culture otherwise poised to fall into total ecological collapse. Replacing the cold, objectifying language of science with a way of speaking of our planet as a sentient, living being, Harding presents the science of Gaia in everyday English. His scientific passion and rigor shine through his luminous prose as he calls us to experience Gaia as a living presence and bringing to mind such popular science authors as James Gleick. Animate Earth will inspire in readers a profound sense of the interconnectedness of life, and to discover what it means to live harmoniously as part of a sentient creature of planetary proportions. This new understanding may solve the most serious problems that face us as a species today.
Synopsis
Dr. Stephan Harding, a long time collaborator of James Lovelock, replaces the cold, objectifying language of science with a way of speaking of our planet as a sentient, living being, not a dead, inert mechanism.
Animate Earth argues that we need to establish a right relationship with the planet as a living entity in which we are embedded - and to which, in the final analysis, we are all accountable. The book inspires the reader to connect with a profound sense of the value of the Earth, and to discover what it means to live as harmoniously as possible within a sentient creature of planetary proportions.
Editorials
From the Publisher
Electronic Book Review-
"Animate Earth is important because Harding walks its swaying rhetorical tightrope with grace and poise to spare, at many moments with moving poetic force, and brings the narrative to his destination, the mutual enhancement of vital scientific ideas and crucial ethical recognitions. The success of his discursive gamble (above and beyond Lovelock's Gaia gambit, which he has absorbed and transformed) is all the more important because, with global ecological disaster closer than anyone had thought up till the end of the last millennium, it seems beside the point to quibble about pedagogical methodology and ontological niceties. Yes, in order to diagram the sort of holism involved in "holistic science," Harding elicits the "mandala" of Jungian wholeness, with its compass points of thinking, sensing, feeling, and intuition. This is not science; it is another serviceable heuristic device, and Harding's discussion does not commit one to the further armatures of Jungian archetypalism. Rather, it prompts one to admit that there may be something to be said for the vision of a culture in better psychological balance."
Midwest Book Review-
"Author Stephen Harding's doctorate in ecology from Oxford and his interest in holistic science creates a satisfying blend of modern science and new age ideas, so add in a dose of history of how older ideas of an 'animate earth' can be explained through a blend of modern science and spirituality and you have a powerful set if ideas indeed. GAIA theory, scientific insights and a focus on a living earth make for wonderful, revealing reading in his new book. Animate Earth is a very strongly recommended for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in science and metaphysics."
"This is a wonderful and beautiful book, a teacher's treasure." --James Lovelock, author of The Revenge of Gaia
"The conception of the Earth as a living, self-organising system, known today as Gaia theory, is an ancient idea and yet one of the most radical and far-reaching scientific theories of the 20th century. In this remarkable book, Stephan Harding, who has worked closely with James Lovelock, tells the story in a way that is scientifically sophisticated, yet easy to understand and captivating. Harding writes about Gaia with great passion, and he eloquently discusses the theory's philosophical, social and political implications. I recommend Animate Earth to everyone concerned about the fate of our planet."--Fritjof Capra, author of The Hidden Connections, The Web of Life, and The Tao of Physics
"For depth of understanding of Earth functioning and our human role in the process, Stephan Harding's Animate Earth is the finest of recent studies. It should be read, meditated on, and adopted as a guide to our human course of action if we would avoid the disaster of an ecological collapse of life on Earth." --Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work
"This book offers a brilliant new approach at once rigorous, experiential, and intuitive to the most up-to-date research within planetary ecology."--David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous
"Animate Earth represents systems science at its best...gives a whole new dimension to what 'environment-friendly' really means." -- Jonathon Porritt