Product Description

In "Animate Earth", Stephan Harding explores how Gaian science can help us to develop a sense of connectedness with the 'more-than-human' world. His work is based on a careful integration of rational scientific analysis with our intuition, sensing and feeling - a vitally important task at this time of an ecological and climate crisis, which reason alone cannot resolve. Stephan Harding replaces the cold, objectifying language of science with a way of speaking of our planet as a sentient, living being rather than as a dead, inert mechanism. For example, chemical reactions are described using metaphors from human life, such as marriage, attraction, repulsion etc., so as to bring personality back into the world of rocks, atmosphere, water and living things. In this sense, the book is a contemporary attempt to rediscover anima mundi (the soul of the world) through Gaian science, whilst assuming no prior knowledge of science. "Animate Earth" argues that we need to establish a right relationship with the planet as the living, sentient entity in which we are indissolubly 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 intrinsic value of the Earth, and to discover what it means to live as harmoniously as possible within a sentient creature of planetary proportions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #346355 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'A wonderful and beautiful book' - James Lovelock 'Animate Earth represents systems science at its best. I defy you not to be swept along by Stephan Harding's account of how the Earth's natural systems (particularly the carbon cycle) have evolved and of our part in them. In the process, he brings the concept of Gaia to life, not just in terms of the science, but philosophically and personally-giving a whole new dimension to what 'environment-friendly' really means.' Jonathon Porritt, Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission '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 Web of Life and The Hidden Connections 'Stephan Harding is one of the few people who knows how to link the science of Gaia with the spirit of Gaia. He shows us that we must understand Gaia not just as an idea in our heads; we must also experience ourselves as part of her living being... A brave book which may upset people from both sides of the divide he seeks to bridge-which makes it all the more essential reading for those seeking to respond to the challenges of our times.' Peter Reason, Professor of Action Research Practice, School of Management, University of Bath '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 and The Dream of the Earth

Fritjof Capra, author of The Web of Life and The Turning Point
Stephan Harding knows the science of Gaia thoroughly, and is passionate about it

Helena Norberg-Hodge, Director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture
Animate Earth is a brilliant synthesis of Gaian science and forward-looking social theory

Customer Reviews

a remarkable book
This book offers a brilliant new approach - at once rigorous, experiential, and intuitive - to the most up-to-date research within planetary ecology. Harding is a close associate of James Lovelock, the polymathic scientist who formulated the Gaia hypothesis - the theory that the chemical composition of the earth's atmosphere, its temperature, the salinity of its oceans, and a host of other variables are continually monitored and modulated by all the earth's organic constituents acting collectively, as a vast planetary metabolism. Originally considered an utterly radical hypothesis when first proposed in the 1970s, Lovelock's insight early on attracted the active support and research interest of one of the most far-seeing American biologists, the audacious microbial biologist Lynn Margulis, and has since, as their evidence mounted, garnered more and more respect from the scientific community. Today most of the theory's tenets have been integrated within the standard account of planetary ecology.

Harding - the staff scientist at Schumacher College - brings a new, deeply participatory approach to the articulation of whole earth science, employing a nuanced sense of philosophy and the history of ideas in order to demonstrate the transformative, paradigm-shattering power of Gaian theory. Throughout his lucid presentation of recent and ongoing empirical research, Harding strives to show the relevance of these remarkable discoveries to our most personal experience of the world immediately around us.

Current evidence is pushing various researchers in the natural sciences away from the through-going objectivism of previous science toward a more animistic acknowledgment that the biosphere in which we're immersed is more a living subject than a determinate object, and hence that their research is less a pursuit of inert and unchanging "facts," than it is an ongoing participation, and dialog, with a vast, spherical sentience whose corporeal complexity we can never completely fathom, and whose actions we can never entirely predict. At every step in his presentation, Harding offers richly imaginative and meditative exercises for the reader to try, as a way to experience these insights viscerally and corporeally - as a way to EMBODY this new understanding of our physiological interdependence (or interbeing) with the animate earth, and so to let this understanding resonate within our daily life.

At such a precarious historical moment as this one we're in, such creative, interdisciplinary visions as Harding's are catalyzing a new and more mature kind of science. They provoke a new kind of intelligence - a rationality informed by our ongoing sensory experience of the world around us, and by the empathic heart beating within our chest - a keen and rigorous intelligence that places itself in service not to humankind alone, but to the wild, more-than-human community of life.

Rigour and imagination

In my view Stephan Harding's "Animate Earth" is the best book yet written on Gaia. Gregory Bateson used to talk about the need for rigour and imagination. Harding brings precisely these qualities to the job of writing about the Earth.

Harding has shown in his work at Schumacher College that he is a brilliant teacher -- witty, learned and just wonderfully alive. He invests all of himself in this book. It is Harding's gift to Gaia, a work of love.

Most Important Book of 21st Century
In my view this is the most important book I have ever read - and I have read many. It is a seminal work, as was Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Every scientist, every science student and every person who calls him or herself an environmentalist should make it their duty to read this work. It is extraordinarily well researched and profound. Your whole attitude to science, to nature and to life itself will inevitably be changed after reading it, unless you have a totally closed mind. Time is running out for the human race as we blindly destroy our own life support systems. Animate Earth points the way to securing the future of life on earth.
One can only hope that enough people read this book before it's too late.