A LIVING BIOSPHERE AND EARTH
 
Abstract
 
                  Is it correct to consider planet Earth as nonliving, with its lithosphere, hydrosphere and lower atmosphere teeming with billions and billions of micro and mega plants and animals? How life originated on Earth and when are not conclusively proved. Recent estimates point back to about 4100 million years as date of origin of life, back from 3800 million years. This is close to estimated age of Earth of about 4500 million years. Was life present in some form, right from origin of Earth? After all, organisms and species are evolved continua of ‘ matters – energies – motions - masses - organizations – organisms - communities’ only.
 
Introduction
                  In this infinite and omnifarious Universe, is Earth the only planet with life? Many say, ‘yes’; many others say, ‘no there can be other planets with life’. The first response is based mainly on myths, belief and theologies and the second is based on scientific studies and space explorations. Another view is presented here that the Earth, seen holistically as a whole is a living entity. All living beings and species, including unicellular algae, huge elephants, tall trees and short grasses are like different leafy branches of the planet–tree, the top biological layer of Earth called the biosphere. The Universe is known to have only one planet with life - the Earth. But it has many energyful ,changing, forming, transforming, solidifying, cooling, evolving , etc. entities (e.g., planets, stars ) and possibly another living planet, somewhere in space!
 
                  The Earth with its different layers, parts and products (Fig.1) is immensely vast, wide, tall, deep, cold, hot, fertile, sweet, sour etc. There are innumerable types of matters, elements, masses, energies, motions, flows, oscillations etc. on Earth and in the case of Universe, millions of galaxies and many many unknowns. Hence totally deterministic models of Universe ,as in myths or theologies are bound to be only beliefs. Seeing Earth as living, needs a wide and deep philosophical view, similar to J. Lovelock's1 Gaia view or model of Earth. This view enables to see physical, chemical, geological, biological, ecological and planetary aspects together in a unified way. This view makes it possible to see the hydrogen atom as active, energized or energyful ,moving, organized into a whole with parts or particles and capable (or with affinity) to join together with other atoms to form bigger and more molecules, somewhat similar to activeness of a bacteria. Hence we have to study integratively, different energies, elements, matters, properties, masses, animals, plants, abilities etc. on Earth to synthesize and understand life in its entirety, rather than in its vegetative nature (or as discrete individual organisms) only.
 
Philosophical premisses on Universe, life and society
                  Starting at most basic level, matters(e.g., atoms,particles ), energies(e.g., heat, light) and fields are everywhere in the Universe. From unicellular life to big organisms and humans with mental energy/ intellectual power, life exists in many forms. In other words, seeing most basically, Universe is “matters- energies continuum”. Space to start with is a concept, in the sense, ‘where matter exists is space’. Matters or masses of matters exist in different states and forms like plasma, ions, gas, liquid and solid, depending on energisation levels. Different particles, atoms, masses and bodies move depending on energy-levels or activation levels. Movement of matter from one place(or space) to another or in circles is measured as displacement rate (e.g., cm/sec) or frequency of oscillation(e.g., cycles/sec.). As an example, consider Sun’s relative movement from morning to next morning in 24 hrs. (The ‘concept’ of time seems to have originated from Sun rise and Sun set). Most fundamental unit of time is International Atomic Time and is measured (as 1 second) as the time taken by Cesium -33 atom to oscillate, at ground level, 9192631770 times
 
                  Understanding life hoilistically is not simply ordinary like differentiating sweet and sour tastes. This needs some background intelligence about various things and their changes (e.g., evaporation), motions (e.g., boiling, wind currents), energisations (e.g., heating), transformations (e.g., a seed germinating into a plant). Starting at atomic level, atoms are energyful due to nucleus and moving electrons . They form into molecules and compounds by uniting together by different ways and energies. These change into complex organic and biochemical substances involving more matters and energies. Biochemical substances join/form together to cause genes and unicellular life. Living things possess inbuilt or inherent mechanisms and energies to reproduce themselves, shortening the long (millions of years) mega-process of evolution. So life, living and reproduction involve everything – particles,atoms, energies, molecules, compounds, chemical energy, amino acids, genes, environmental forces/energies (e.g., solar energy), magnetic and gravity fields etc. So the process of living involves in various ways, Sun, Earth, whole ecosystems, hydrosphere, atmosphere, gravity and other fields. (Only problem is human limitations of comprehending the process of life holistically.) So for biologists to call plants and animals as living and air and water as non-living is okay. Similarly, for evolutionists and other integrative thinkers to say that the Earth is a living entity , since its lithosphere substrates and nourishes the biosphere is also okay.
 
Models of life and society
                  Understanding the Universe (or as an ordinary human sees, understanding my universe/world, my living, environment and society) is not a day’s or year’s job, but a consequence of long-term, honest living. (Without honesty there is no right thinking and coherent mind). Ordinarily, this starts in home under parental care, watching, listening and doing ‘what- others- do’. Learnings, further in life, progress conventionally, traditionally, socially and scientifically. Here what one understands about the Universe, life and living are through beliefs, traditions, myths, theories, experiments etc. So there are models of life and Universe based on myths, theologies, theories and philosophies. For example, ‘God created everything’, ‘God is almighty’, ‘God the spirit evolved, into humans’ etc. All tribal cultures might have creation-myths2 or stories (e.g., Tungusic myths of Siberia, Ainu myths of Japan, Hisagita-imisi myth of Greek). These models of creation and resulting social living ways and religious living ways are present in many habitats and regions/countries. Other models of life and society are atheistic and atheists are of different shades like naturalists, agnostics, materialists and followers of different scientific schools of thought(e.g., evolutionists).
 
                  Another way of living is fully natural living ways as seen in seas and forests, e.g., floating plankton colonies, honey bees, termites, elephants, sardines and foresters. This is the most basic way of living also. Here life is fully natural or nature-controlled. Many individuals live in groups called natural communities, e.g., a clan of foresters, a herd of cattle, a school of fish, a flock of birds. For these animals, life is fully nature-controlled and they are all ‘naturalists’ . Hence, the Universe in another miniaturized form is present in the biological living-space or ecosystems and its individualized branches called habitats (e.g., a habitat of foresters). This localized universe is symbolized or mythicised in many tribal cultures all over the Earth 3 ( e.g., Taiowa myth of creation, Rangi and Papa myth of creation, Brahma-the creator myth )
 
Different types of continua
                  In the third paragraph it is stated that the Universe is ‘matters – energies’ continuum. If humans are seen as most evolved and complex form of ‘matters-energies – organisms – communities’ continuum, we can immeadiately think of other types of life on Earth as lowly evolved ‘matters-energies – organisms – communities’ - cintinua. For example, a deer stands at a lower level in evolutionary scale, similarly a worm or microbe. Again, down the scale, a lifeless marshy area, as it existed billions of years back, can be considered as a localized ‘matters-energies’ continuum (only). Similarly is a lake on top of an icy plateau , as it existed millions of years back. Another example is a comparatively young mountain-lake with its unique ecosystem. All these are different types of organizations of matters, energies, masses, liquids, solids, gasses, organisms, communities etc. at different periods of evolution of Earth with different physical-chemical backgrounds of surface Erth, solar heating, winds, rains, biota etc. Now see a list of different localized (in time and space or in evolutionary space) continua of masses, energies, organizations, communities and colonies, starting from atomic level.
 
  1. A continuum of particles, ions, energies etc. in the background of gravitational force and electromagnetic fields.
  2. A mixture or dense solution of different matters, compounds and energies with no life.
  3. An underground lifeless lake of hydrocarbons.
  4. A mass of (a colony) floating micro-organisms in a coastal sea.
  5. A group of amphibians who can live in water and land.
  6. A river flowing from a mountain to sea with its riverine ecosystems.
  7. A flock of birds in their nesting habitat in and around a lake.
  8. A clan of forest-humans who live like chimpanzees.
  9. A community of tribals near a forest.
  10. A community of rural farmers.
  11. A colony of urban, industrial workers in a city with many other types of colonies (see
    no.9 for a comparison).
 
                  It would take many days or months for a scientist to think and understand the complexities involved in the evolution of higher and higher types of continua, life and their organizational specialities. But it is a certainty that, from one level to another level or from one community to another , there exists unifying features, enabling the individuals to belong to a self-evolving ‘matters-energies-masses-organisations-organisms-communities’ continuum. So seeing integratively, or holistically , there is nothing wrong in calling Earth a living planet or continuum of ‘ communities – organisms – organizations - masses – energies – matters ‘. Specialists who are against this idea are intellectually partisan and compartmental.
 
A wonderful comparison
                  Consider a micro-organism living within the dusty outer layer of bark of a tree. In 1 or 2 hours of life, it completes all its activities of growing, maturing, reproducing and decaying. It is not aware of the big tree which grows tons of leaves and fruits and lives for hundreds of years. What is 1 hour in 4.38 million hours (500 yr.). A human’s life of about 100 yr. or a tree’s life of about 500 yr. is similar to that of the micro-organism in comparison to process of evolution of surface Earth and ecosystems which take (tens or hundreds of million of years). An ordinary tribal farmer is not aware of the process of evolution of ecosystem over millons of years! A tribal who lives fully naturally by hunting and gathering and has only a hut made of wood, lives like the above-stated micro-organism. But a modern, educated urban who is informed on human evolution, lithospheric evolution, solar system etc. makes use of natural resources (e.g., petroleum) and other energies using various designed and engineered devices. The differences in lifestyles and habitats of a tribal and an urban engineer are enormous, one is fully natural and the other is almost fully artificial/engineered and out of time and integrativeness with nature. Integrative thinking and living are akin to tribals, but difficult or impossible for urbanites.
 
Biosphere
                  Once the author was travelling in a bus. On the left side, about half a kilometer away, there was a small hill of about 2 km stretch , fully covered with green trees, just after monsoon rains. What is wrong in calling this hill a living part or bio-organ of Earth? Similarly is green paddy fields. Now come to a desert; no plants or trees, no animals to see anywhere. What is wrong in calling this desert, hot and waterless, a barren part or organ of Earth? Now, go into interior Earth where temperatures are above 1000 or 2000o C. What is wrong in calling this inner, lifeless regions, as energized or energyful, moving , flowing and active parts or organs of Earth? The fundamental issue is that, whether organisms with capacity of reproduction only can be considered as living and all other things are simply nonliving. In reality nonliving to living is only a quantum jump like chimpanzees to humans with a differentiation of species. To see Earth as active and living needs a unified and integrative view (philosophical or metaphysical view) of Earth, merging geology, hydrology, meteorology, chemistry, physics, biology and ecology, say geo-biochemistry of ecosystems. The divisions into geology, chemistry, biochemistry, biology and ecology were made by specialists to identify and grow their areas of studies and specializations.
 
                  Biosphere is constituted by three interacting spheres (Fig. 1) of Earth , viz., surficial lithosphere (only continental crust), hydrosphere and lower atmosphere or troposphere. It covers almost all areas of Earth’s surface. The pyramidal, all-embracing food chain progressively and evolvingly incorporates various elements (e.g., Calcium, Carbon, Oxygen), compounds (e.g., amino acids) and energies (e.g., Sun light) into its different layers of plants and animals. The pyramid starts at base with unicellular bacteria (about 3800 million years old) to highly organized and evolved primates (abiut 100 million years old). The wonderful thing about the inner Earth (Fig. 1) is that it is in contact ( or communication) with the outer biosphere through volcanic activities and different movements of crust and crustal matters. All constituents of living organisms – all matters, compounds and energies – come from Earth and atmosphere in different proportions depending on species, types, groups etc.
 
 
                  It is estimated4 that unicellular life existed on Earth for about 3800 million years, a little less than estimated age of Earth ( about 4500 million years). (Recent estimates5,6 are that life is older by about 300 million years more, i.e., 4100 million years). So history of Earth is almost history of life on Earth, or holistically, history of living Earth. The biosphere is rightly an organic layer of Earth which is connected and in communication with other deeper layers of Earth and enveloping atmosphere, always exchanging energies and matters, vibrating, moving, forming, transforming, organizing, growing, living, decaying, etc. in periods of microseconds to years. Stating philosophically, different layers of Earth (inner and outer layers, mantle and lithosphere) and atmosphere exist to substrate , nourish and water the biosphere – the only one known to exist in the Universe. Hence the biosphere can be rightly called the womb of Earth where life originated and flourished. Is not the Earth energyful , active, changing, consolidating, transforming, organizing, living etc., in different process of evolution, in organisms, parts, layers and wholly? Is not the Earth a living planet?
 
Conclusions
                  Earth can be considered as living planet based on scientific and holistic thinking. ‘Earth is nonliving’ is a result of too discrete thinking. Being discrete is not an all-embracing principle of science. Sometimes when the premisses are vague and misty, scientists have to be integrative and holistic (or philosophical) to put together distantly related facts. Origin of life and living Earth are vague and inconclusive areas, wherein one should accept non-conventional views. Different interpretations and branches of science are only a result of different specializations and schools of thought and resulting schisms!.
 
REFERENCES
  1. James E. Lovelock, Gaia – a new look at life on Earth, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995.
  2. List of creation myths, www.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_creation_myths, (accessed on 15 May
    2016).
  3. Creation by and from the self, www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSSelf.html, (accessed on 15 May
    2016).
  4. McAlester , A.L., The history of life, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs N.j., 1968.
  5. Scientists may have found earliest evidence of life on Earth,
    Julia Rosen, www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/10/scientists-may -have -found-earliest-evidence-
    life-earth, (accessed on 15 May 2016).
  6. Mojzsis, S.J., Arrhenius G., McKeegan, K.D., Harrison, T.M.,Nutman,A.P., Friend,C.R., Evidence of
    life on Earth before 3800 million years ago. London, Nature vol.384(6604):55-59, 1996.
 
 
 
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