Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
sends it into the rivers as calcium bicarbonate ions where the carbon eventually finds its
way into deposits of chalk and limestone on the sea bed. Gaia is cooler now, with less
carbon dioxide in her atmosphere, so there is less rainfall, and in the drier world there is
less life-assisted weathering of granite and basalt. The great dance comes full circle as
volcanoes warm the planet through their return of carbon dioxide to the air.
Now let's follow another journey. Plants grow more vigorously in an atmosphere rich
in carbon dioxide, an essential nutrient that they deftly capture through tiny pores on the
undersides of their leaves. As the plants grow, their roots expand in the soil and weath-
er more granite and basalt, thereby cooling the Earth. Now another journey. When car-
bon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, the higher temperatures stimulate the growth
of plants, which increases the rate of granite and basalt weathering, thereby cooling the
planet. I will leave you to trace out the remaining journeys on your own.
Now, after this fairly detailed exploration of the abstract terrain of cybernetics and
Gaian self-regulation, we need to ask ourselves how we can use this approach to ground
ourselves ever more deeply in our animate Earth. Indeed, there is a danger that cyber-
netics can leave us with a severe sense of disconnection from the world—that it can
lead us, in the words of David Abram, to believe in an “entirely
flat
world seen from
above,
a world without depth,
a nature that we are not a part of but that we look at from
outside—like a God”. How do we avoid this? I find it helpful to convert the feedback
diagrams into
stories
by taking them outdoors, either literally or imaginatively, where
I dissolve the flat-world pictures with their various arrows and components into an in-
tuitive experience of the embedded relationships amongst the animate subjects that the
story speaks of. If the story concerns the weathering of granite by rain and vegetation, I
spend time with a granite boulder, sensing my way into the depths of its rocky silicate
matrix, and then similarly with rain, with trees and moss, and with rivers and clouds.
This practice opens up the senses and intuition, allowing one to move through the storied
feedbacks in a kind of awakened dream state that yields a rich harvest of meaning, sig-
nificance and belonging.
Breathing Chalk and Granite
If you can, find a small piece of granite and a small piece of chalk or limestone.
If you can't find these stones, then imagine that you are holding one in each
hand. The two stones represent all of the granite and all the chalk on our planet's
surface. Make yourself comfortable, either indoors or out, and become aware of
breathing slowly and naturally.
