The Gaia hypothesis posits that the Earth is a self-regulating complex system involving the biosphere, the atmosphere, the hydrospheres and the pedosphere (soil), tightly coupled as an evolving system. The hypothesis contends that this system as a whole, called Gaia, seeks a physical and chemical environment optimal for contemporary life. (Wikipedia)

One of the biggest impacts of humans on Gaia is the use of fossil fuels and the effect that this usage has caused. The natural carbon cycle generally pushes carbon down into the depths of the earth, and down into the ocean. When people drill or frack the earth for oil, they’re bringing up all the carbon that the earth has worked so hard to push down. Which means that humans are disrupting this carbon cycle by bringing up and burning more carbon than the earth can draw back down. (Photo/painting: Christie Sims)

The greenhouse effect is a well-known phenomenon, in which the earth is warmed by gases trapping heat. This was a miraculous system for life on Earth, since it protects all life from being fried from harmful sun rays. Too many greenhouse gases in the atmosphere contribute to excessive warming. This excessive anthropogenic warming negatively affects flora and fauna in many ways including increased aridity, and more frequent and more dangerous stochastic events. In order to lessen the effects of too much carbon in the atmosphere, there needs to be more emphasis on carbon drawdown by humans. The best technology we have for reducing atmospheric carbon are trees. There are absolutely no other technologies that equal the amount of sequestration potential that a tree has. This is why focus on protecting and planting trees is so paramount. (Photo: Carolyn Eaton)

Protecting trees, also known as proforestation, is a near term climate solution that allows the trees to continue what they’re already doing – namely, sequestering the atmosphere-warming carbon dioxide gas. Proforestation can take the form of local governments enacting moratoriums on deforestation, or federal governments setting aside national parks with stricter environmental protections. Old growth trees are the most effective at sequestration due to the amount of biomass they’ve grown throughout their life. The trees with large amounts of biomass have a lot of surface area to breathe in the carbon dioxide, so these are the trees that are most important to carbon drawdown and slowing the climate crisis.

Along with very important near-term climate solutions, long-term climate solutions should also be done, to ensure success of the near-term solutions. This can take the form of reforestation, which is the replanting of trees that were once already there. This looks like putting native trees back where they were once thriving in the past and connecting disjunct forests again. This will take a while to see the effects of reforestation since the trees have to grow up and mature enough to constitute an entire forest again.

Afforestation is the practice of planting trees where there weren’t trees before. Afforestation brings a sequestration benefit because it plants a tree. It also creates habitats for animals and brings shade to sunny regions. But there is a danger associated with afforestation in that the new trees may be invasive species, perhaps choking out other native species in the area. It is possible for afforestation to be really great, if appropriate climates are moving pole-wards. The native distribution may no longer be able to hold those certain trees. Generally, afforestation is good, but can be bad without proper research. (Photo/painting: Christie Sims)

Gaia is suffering from an excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to human influence. To fix this, the best solution is to protect existing trees, while also planting new trees where they belong, with respect to native distributions. It is imperative to take these steps in order to rectify the damage caused by humans bringing up and burning carbon. There’s a lot of work to be done to start healing Gaia, but the first step is to start.