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How stable is planet Earth?

The BA Charles Lyell Award Lecture

with Tim Lenton

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Life has thrived on the Earth's surface for nearly four billion years,despite a steadily brightening Sun, occasional asteroid impacts and volcanic outbursts. British scientistJames Lovelock firstintuited that this apparentstability could arise from life and its environmenton Earth forming a tightly coupled system thatself-regulates in a habitable state.The system was named "Gaia" after the Greek Earth goddess and the Gaia hypothesis of "atmospheric homeostasis by and for the biosphere" has been provoking controversy and research ever since. Discover the potential for humanity to switch the Earth into a differentstate,along with the implications for us and our fellow species.Its notall doom and gloom though,looking far into the future, life should persiston Earth for another billion years.

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