review of The Sacred Balance - Gaia Hypothesis and of John Francis Walks the Earth

   David Suzuki's The Sacred Balance includes a talk with James Lovelock about the origins of his "Gaia" hypothesis. Lovelock's hypothesis states that the earth is one organism, life depends on the atmosphere but life also creates the atmosphere and regulates it. Lovelock worked with NASA in search for life on other planets by atmospheric analysis and found that no other planet in our solar system contained an atmosphere like ours therefore making our planet unique and the only one capable of supporting life.
   I don't think people realize this, they take it for granted that this is the only Earth that we are ever going to have. If we destroy the living things that keep our Earth in balance then we will be left with nothing and we will be destroyed too. As Lovelock stated the Earth is one living entity, meaning that if we wan to take care of the Earth we must care for everything and help maintain this balance.

   John Francis a guest on TED Talks tells the story of his life and how he became an environmentalist.
He went for 17 years without talking and gave up riding or driving motorized vehicles. Instead he walked the United States and went to three different schools where he got first a bachelor's degree in environmental studies then went on to get a masters and finally a PHD. Francis continued his trek by foot and by sail sending a message to the world about environmental respect and responsibility. He became an ambassador for the U.N.
   Francis believes that the environment is about how we treat ourselves and each other because we are the environment. If we are to take care of the environment we need to learn to treat each other with love and respect.
   I support Francis in his idea because if we can't treat each other with respect and love how can we be expected to treat other living organisms with respect and care. I feel that the first step is learning to treat other people with love and compassion, if we do this we will in-tern show the same kind of love and respect for the environment because we are part of the earth just as any other living organism and together we all make up the living entity that is Earth.