DAN PARADI TRILENG
CORONAVIRUS
GAIA HYPOTHESIS
James Ephraim Lovelock, CH CBE FRS (born 26 July 1919), an independent scientist, environmentalist, and futurist, proposed the Gaia hypothesis in the 60s, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system in which living and non-living parts of the Earth form a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism.
The term Gaia, named after the Greek goddess Gaia was suggested by novelist William Golding (Lord Of The Flies). It echoes Hindi terms like ‘Prthvee Maata’ or ‘Bharat Mata’ and the Mauritian term ‘Mama Later’.
Although some scientists are highly critical of the concept, it has been widely and enthusiatically accepted by environmentalists.
As a green activist and poet, I believe that the Gaia Hypothesis is an intuition, an inspiration and the breath of a thinking poetic heart. It warns us of the consequences of our selfishness and greed; of our lack of consideration for what makes life possible on Planet Earth; of the plunder and rape of Mother Earth; of the destruction of biodiversity; of our worship of Mammon; of the destruction of rainforests and the wiping out of our mangrove forests; of our involvement in the destruction of ecosystems; of the power we have given to the Trumps, the Bolsonaros, the Modis and the Netanyahus etc. who are the high priests of Mammon.
After a long period of brutal patient suffering, Gaia or Mother Earth or Mama Later has decided to hit back. Retaliation has taken the form of CORONAVIRUS. Consequences?
1. The second most powerful country in the world is grinding to a halt;
2. The world is under seige;
3. The great Marxist-Leninist, President of the People’s Republic of China (In 2017, The Economist named him the most powerful person in the world; in 2018, Forbes ranked him as the most powerful and influential person in the world) has started to use religious imagery calling CORONAVIRUS demon and, of course, seeing himself as the angelic saint. As usual he thinks ‘L’enfer c’est les autres’. He would be well advised to read Shakespeare’s Othello to understand that hell is in oneself.
We are the demons, the predators, the rapists of Mother Earth and if we are not careful and stop our evil ways, we will disappear in a more tragic way than dinosaurs millions of years ago.
30.01.20