Earth, The Living Organism

Alive

  Cutting right to the chase, some scholars might wonder on whether how alive is our home planet. Is it just a big rock hovering in space, that's so happen to house trillions of living things, or but rather a giant organism that is more alive than we think? To understand it all we need to ask ourselves first on what constitutes a living thing?

  Plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, somatic cells, even you dear readers are classified as living things. So far our understanding goes is that living things are things that needs sustenance to live and consumes energy to give out energy in various processes. Plants needs carbon dioxide to release oxygen while humans and most animals use oxygen in which the byproduct is carbon dioxide. It is a symbiotic relationship in which both aids each other to survive and thrive. But what if there is a third party involved? Could Earth itself be that third party? 

  Many might say on how, Earth does not consume energy, basically it does not eat to function so it couldn't be living. It is not made of cells like all living things does and there is no biological processes happening internally inside mother earth. But these arguments are limited to our understandings of what life is on Earth. There is so much that we do not know about life itself, heck we don't even sure how life started on Earth. Creationism? Evolution? Panspermia? We have no definite answer at all as some rely on faith. Whatever knowledge we have at current could still be debated as it may turn out false or outdated. Therefore never reject any possibilities that could arise.

  Earth may not have cells that consumes and produces energy, but it actually does, just not on a biological scale, but rather on a geological scale. The Earth is not stagnant, it is rotating. Inside is filled with layers upon layers of crust until you reach a point where there is magma flowing towards the core. This generates an immense heat and produces geothermal energy that radiates throughout the planet. Previously, it was thought that sunlight is key for life to exist. Without the sun's ray, photosynthesis couldn't work therefore it is impossible for life to harbour in places where sunlight could not reach such as the ocean floor in addition which even has an immense pressure that could rupture metal itself. However this theory was proven to be wrong when an experiment was made that sent robots to the Challenger Deep, the deepest point on earth at the Mariana's Trench had findings that the ocean bed was teaming with life due to the presence of geothermal vents that provided enough heat for life to thrive.

  The human immune system fights an infection through fevers. Whenever there are diseases, anti bodies rush in to fight off foreign invaders. The author believes that, if we scale up to a planetary scale, Earth's immune system could be the happenings of global catastrophes. Look no further, the year 2020 saw Australia burning, widespread diseases of the Wuhan virus and the reemergence of the H5N1 virus. We are overpopulated, we have been cutting trees, using up natural resources just for our selfish benefit. We are undoubtedly destroying the planet. We are the infection. But the Earth retaliates by sending wave after waves of its version of a fever. It could be in a form of tsunamis, hurricanes, raising temperatures or even releasing diseases that plague us. We should begin to ask? Are we killing the planet, have we become a parasite on this Earth? 

The Greeks called the Earth Gaia, which is mother earth. She is the embodiment of Earth itself and together with Uranus, god of the sky, they create the heavens and earth. Greek philosophers believe these characters do exist and is very much alive. Stories that were told the told in the ancient times should be taken we a grain of salt but doesn't deny the possibility that these beings exist. They is no smoke without a fire, hence it is unfair to rule out the myth completely.

  The author begs the question on what if all the plants in the world, the trees, the bushes, the branches, the vines all of that is nothing but a neural network similar to neural pathways of the brain. Does that mean that everything is connected? In the 2009 sci fi flick Avatar,  the habitable moon Pandora was seen as a planet blossoming with life. Not to mention, Dr Augustine found out that all living things, from the trees to its creatures, is connected with each other through a life force in which the indigenous population calls Eywa. To fathom the possibility of something as complex as the human mind on a planetary scale is simply mind boggling and this could actually be happening in our planet now.