Gaia – Earth Goddess
In Greek mythology, Gaia is the personification of the Earth as a Goddess. She was one of the first divinities to appear in the universe, the mother of all things. She was born immediately after Chaos and it is Gaia who, by separating the Earth from the Heavens, orders the cosmos and ends with chaos. In this process, many other divinities, as well as the oceans, the mountains, the plants, the animals, etc, appear. Thus, she personifies the origin of the world, the triumph, the facilitator of dreams, the protector of fecundity and of the young. The name Gaia, Géia or Gê, is used as a prefix to name many sciences related to the study of the planet, such as Geography or Geology.
Gaia – Portuguese City
In the North of Portugal, facing the City of Porto, is located the City of Gaia which, because of its name, wishes to assume itself as the place where the question of the much needed organisation of the global neighbourhood is debated, because this is a problem of men and women. Although homonymous, the name of the city Gaia has a different origin than the name of the Greek Goddess. It comes from the word Cale (or Gale, in classic Latin). From the proximity to Porto was born the word PortusCale, which then originated the country’s name – Portugal, which still means the port of Gaia.
In the south margin of the mouth of the Douro River, in the region of Porto, Gaia is the third largest city of Portugal with over 300,000 inhabitants. Gaia houses the Port wine cellars, one of its greatest riches and emblems.
The Ribeirinha area, where the event Gaia Commitment will take place, offers a dazzling scenario with the monumental bridges connecting Gaia to Porto. Both cities reveal the best of their historical heritage over hills of granite, whilst the Douro River swings the Rabelo boats. Although greatly developed and cosmopolitan, Gaia still has unmatched natural riches, with the river, beaches and the sea, natural parks and well-preserved rural areas.
Insofar as that Gaia is not only a distant mythological fi gure but rather a living symbol that can and knows how to change an apparently insoluble destiny, the City of Gaia accepts this challenge.
by Mário Fontemanha, Environment Councilor of Gaia
Gaia – Theory of Gaia
The core ideas of the Theory of Gaia created a substantial change in the perception we have of the planet. Gaia is a scientifi c theory, by James Lovelock, presenting planet Earth as one living organism. The theory was presented in 1969, stating it is the Biosphere that creates, sustains and regulates the conditions for its own survival.
Gaia was the name chosen for this theory because in Greek mythology it is the name of the Earth Goddess. The holistic approach of the Theory of Gaia is profoundly innovative in its extreme work of joining what was divided, assuming the challenge of thinking globally and risking the complex paths of interdisciplinarity. Lovelock and Margulis explain the retro-feeding network, where the living beings and the physical environment form an intimately connected and indivisible system in evolution, responsible for the climate’s self-regulation and the chemical composition of the atmosphere.
This made possible for Geology, Microbiology, Atmospheric Chemistry, Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and other sciences to join in an integrated approach to a series of natural phenomena, in which the stones, the air and the oceans are strongly connected systems that evolve through one process and not through several separate ones. After all, with regard to interdisciplinarity, it is not very different to speak of Biogeochemistry or the Theory of Gaia.
Gaia represents this living planet which is much more than a collection of living beings and ecosystems; it is a complex and transcendent network, the union of beings and phenomena producing a whole incomparably greater than the sum of the parts. All recognise either believing or not in the Theory of Gaia, that we must ponder very seriously the consequences of the actions of Man on Earth, since climate change has made it clear that the Earth’s natural system is deeply interdependent.
Gaia – Declaration of Gaia
Constitutive Declaration of the Earth Condominium
read and sign: www.earth-condominium.com
