“The messages from the ice [core studies] are strikingly clear: stable climate is a myth. The Gaia into which our species emerged is a wild, complex dynamic being, subject to sudden shifts between multiple semi-stable states. At this time in her long life, small disturbances can ramify through her vast body, growing larger and larger through positive feedback …. There are tipping points beyond which climate can suddenly transmute from benign to deadly, and there is no good reason for us to bask in the complacent idea that our emissions of greenhouse gases will warm the planet gradually – that we will have time to adapt. It is far more likely that we will trigger abrupt, catastrophic climate changes that will push Gaia into a new hot state unsuitable for many of her life forms, including ourselves.”
– Stephan Harding, Animate Earth : Science, Intuition & Gaia
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“The only certain thing about this coming century is it’s immense uncertainty. The great temptation of our time will be the impulse to flee from this uncertainty. Given the black-and-white propensity of Western minds, it will take conscious effort to resist taking refuge either in despair – in the conviction that ‘it’s too late’ – or in the alternative, to bask in groundless, sunny optimism that ‘we’ll figure out something, because science always does.’ I have heard a great deal said about the importance of hope as the human prospect has grown darker, but hope will sustain us only if it is clear-eyed. In reflecting about cultural traps that have made past societies incapable of meeting the challenge of changing circumstances, the anthropologist Paul Bohannan asks, ‘Have they at least figured out some of the things they should not do? Or are they running on blind hope? That kind of hope kills.’ I don’t think we have figured it out. I fear blind hope as much as despair.”
“In times of danger, bitter truths serve us better than sweet lies.”
– Diane Dumanoski - The End of the Long Summer :
Why We Must Remake Civilization to Live on a Volatile Earth
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Site updates
- 05.13.12 : New blog post : The End of the Long Vacation
- 05.05.12 : New blog post : Lovelock’s Climate Punt : Part 1
- 04.18.12 : Calendar update : Waterville, ME, May lectures and seminars
- 03.21.12: New blog post : Abnormal heat, a Margulis Memorial, then …
- 02.03.12: New blog post : Brigid & Imbolc
- 02.03.13: Updated About with new bio
- 01.23.12 : New blog post : An open letter to Maine communitiesabout my lecture & seminar on abrupt climate change
- 01.22.12 : Calendar updated with lectures in Waterville, ME.
- 11.24.11 : I am mourning the death of my greatest mentor, inspiration for much of my work, and friend, Dr. Lynn Margulis, who died November 22 at age 73. Earth – Gaia - has lost its greatest biologist since Charles Darwin, and – in my opinion – Darwin’s equal. Her work in both Gaia theory and symbiogenesis (both described here in) added to Darwin’s idea of natural selection to take evolutionary biology in a new direction. I offer my sincerest condolences to her wonderful family. I will miss her greatly.
- 11.15.11 : Calendar updated with details of November/December Gaia 101/climate lectures and seminars in central Maine (Skowhegan, Dexter & Brooks).
- 09.20.11 : Posted a new blog post – the most important that I’ve written in years – entitled “Gaia 101 & Gæa school“, about my new live and online seminar and its relationship to two other projects.
- 09.15.11 : A new blog post titled “It’s raining” was posted as the first exercise in Gaia school’s fall term. I’m drafting another post now – to be posted later today or tomorrow - about the concept of Gaia school and it’s relationship to my new seminar – Gaia 101.
- 09.13.11 : Gaia school begins for fall term. I will be conducting multiple versions of my new seminar, Gaia 101 : A Story of Gaia, both online and in person. In person seminars are being planned for Skowhegan, Maine and at least one neighboring community.
- {July/August : site inactive during move to Skowhegan, ME;cleaned, painted, remodeled new studio, and developed Gaia 101}
- 04.24.11 : Published part 2 (of 3) of an essay entitled “What is life?”
- 04.12.11 : Published part 1 (of 3) of an essay entitled “What is life?”
- 04.06.11 : Published a new essay entitled “Facing & Surviving Climate Change with Honest Hope“.
- 03.03.11 : Published a *major* revision of my essay entitled “Why large-scale climate change (probably) cannot be stopped.”
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Coming soon … The Adaptability Project
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Introduction
This site describes the educational program developed by me - Alder Stone Fuller - about ‘system sciences’, including geophysiology. They are a set of principles offering a deep understanding - a rational and intuitive grasp – of any complex, dynamical network or system on scales from molecular and cellular to organisms (like you) and societies to Gaia, Earth’s planetary-scale metabolism and homeostasis.
To be clear, this site – and my work in general – is about science, not religion nor new age mysticism. Yet these are not the standard “mechanistic” sciences of the last 300 years that portrayed nature as a “machine” to be controlled for human benefit. They are new sciences – often formalizing ancient ideas – that have emerged from the work of leading scientists, including Nobel laureates, offering simple yet elegant and awe-inspiring insights into nature and life on scales ranging from cells to planet.
This site offers a unique collection of essays, presentations, seminars and courses to help people understand these concepts, and to begin to replace our outdated and dangerous mechanistic world views with new ones grounded in the system sciences.
For more background, please see overview, a brief description of the concept of Gaia, and testimonials from my students. You’ll also find much information in my Essays. For information about my seminars, courses and consulting, please see Services. My bio is here.
Please contact me with questions or inquiries.
Welcome to my site.
Alder Stone Fuller