About

          Gaiatribe: Ideas for a Thinking Planet  supports the premise that humanity is the part of the biosphere that can reason consciously.  In many ways, the Earth behaves like a living organism, as if all its plants and animals and cycles are the organs in a vast body; this is sometimes called the Gaia Theory.  For all its awareness and responsiveness, however, the biosphere as a whole is not sentient.  That’s our job: we are the brain and the mind of the Earth.  This gives us the responsibility to think through our actions and their consequences, so that we may benefit life instead of harming it. 

          This blog presents a diversity of challenges along with some skills and resources for handling them.  Here you will find discussions of renewable energy, sustainable development, intentional community, family skills, nature religions, environmental awareness, and related topics.  News from elsewhere comes with questions to encourage deeper analysis.  Book reviews offer ideas for further reading.

          The name of this blog comes from three roots: 

1) “Gaia” is the name of the Greek goddess of earth.  She lent her name to the Gaia Theory mentioned above.  Gaia is subtle, complex, and powerful.  In a sense, the biosphere is a form of life as much larger and more sophisticated — in comparison to a human being — as a goddess.  Such awareness may help broaden our scope beyond purely selfish concerns.

2) “Tribe” refers to a close-knit social structure still practiced in some traditional cultures.  It’s about the largest social unit that works reliably; larger governmental systems all have various flaws that start causing problems as soon as you add humans.  Such a sense of kinship helps us hold things together while we work on making the world a better place.  

3) “Diatribe” refers to a lengthy discourse or satyrical criticism.  In this case, it has to do with studying the things that have gone wrong with human organization and with the environment, and what might be done to improve that situation.  Such study tends to generate a certain amount of irony.

          You are heartily encouraged to join the discussions.