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Glite Dictionary
🧝 Earth-mother myth 🌍 Earth-system follower 🌍 Earth as system
Gaian

Gaian

1 9.5
A person who believes that Earth is a living system
  • noun
  • /ˈɡeɪən/
: gaiano
  • Lovelock and Margulis find a Gaian explanation in the tiny ocean phytoplankton that incorporate CO2 from the atmosphere into their calcium carbonate shells.
  • Gaian framework

Examples

  • We cannot rely on the Gaian view of nature to repair the damage we cause.

    Academic text (2005)

  • Jen told him they were "doing penance," which he figured must mean she was a Gaian, too.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • What is the role of the human in the Gaian framework?

    Academic text (1994)

  • Is such an option viable within a Gaian framework?

    Academic text (1994)

  • Consider the Gaian argument for planetary-scale control of the climate.

    Academic text (1991)

  • To Gaian radicals, there were no "moderate" approaches to saving Earth.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Many of these questions revolve around the role of the human in the Gaian schema.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Throughout the week, we explored the Gaian concept of the living world as a single conscious entity able to express emotions such as happiness.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Yet Lovelock, in ascribing a peripheral role for humanity in the Gaian framework, neglects to take into account socio-economic factors of pollution.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The Gaian community believes in treating the Earth as a living organism.

Surface Forms

Gaian singular
Gaians plural

Morphology

Gaian = Gaia (transparent) = Gaia + an

Formed by the productive suffix '-an' on 'Gaia' to create a relational/agentive form; the noun sense 'a person who is Gaian' is directly predictable from the base.

Etymology

Gaian as a noun comes from the name Gaia, meaning the 'earth', so a Gaian is a person who follows the idea that Earth is one 'living system' and therefore believes living things are connected and should be cared for.