Background of the Gaia Foundation The Gaia Foundation of Australia started in Perth, Western Australia in 1987. Over the thirteen tears since it started it has attracted a growing support, largely because of the projects it has undertaken. The Foundation is linked to an expanding network of individuals and groups, part of the growing fabric of Gaia organisations operating around the world, in Britain, the USA, Europe and elsewhere. Members of the Foundation share three commitments - 1. Personal growth; healing and empowering ourselves in order to fulfil our true personal, community and planetary potential. We are much more than who we think we are. 2. Community building; strengthening the communities of which we are a part through community development and community education. 3. Service to the Earth; enhance the wellbeing and flourishing of all life. In gratitude we give back to Earth a little for what has been so unstintingly given to us. The Members of the Foundation fulfil these commitments through engaging in Gaia Projects, either by creating new initiatives, working together with other Gaia Members, or by working with other organisations. Thus "Our intention is to lovingly empower ourselves and others to know oneness with Gaia, the living Earth, through taking courageous and joyous action, now" Through sharing the commitments and the intention the Gaia Foundation operates as a self-generating flexibly bounded organisation, in which most of the energy is held in the periphery rather than the core. In this way any member can contribute to the healing of our dysfunctional, unsustainable and increasingly violent global society, caused by a faulty relationship between humanity and the living planet. We do this by activities that demonstrate alternative ways of living are not only possible, but are essential for a truly sustainable civilisation in a genuinely post industrial age. Background The Foundation takes its inspiration and organisation from the Gaia theory, of James Lovelock, Lynne Margulis and others, which shows that the Earth itself is alive. The biological and geological cycles of air, water and earth, driven by the fires of the sun are so tightly coupled within the biosphere that its forms a self-regulating metabolism, an evolving "living entity". The name "Gaia" selected for this planetary "being" by the Nobel prize winning novelist, William Golding, is therefore especially appropriate as it was the name given to the Earth, oldest of the ancient Greek gods - the self creating mother of all beings. Seen from within the perspective of Gaia, humanity does not represent some apex on a pyramid, but is merely one very recent blossom on the tree of life, a strand in the web of life. Human centred views that see the world as comprising inanimate and living resources intended for our use, is the view of a cancerous self-destructive civilisation, out of touch with reality. For example, Gaia, over its four billion years of existence has created five great pillars, on which the whole of life on Earth depends. Human activity in a cancerous fashion is currently dismantling and destroying each of these Gaian creations. Pillar 1. By burying as calcium carbonate and fossil fuels most of the carbon dioxide of the primitive atmosphere, it has prevented the Earth from heating, liberating oxygen and maintaining the temperatures which make complex life possible. Human activity is intent on digging up the fossil fuels and returning carbon dioxide into the air as quickly as possible in such amounts as to make our climates increasingly unpredictable, threatening all life on the planet. Pillar 2. The oxygen has created an ozone shield, which prevented the photochemical breakdown of water, preventing the Earth from drying out like Mars and Venus. By protecting the land from harmful ultraviolet light, life was able to leave the protective oceans and spread to every habitat on the planet. Human activity, through the release of ozone destroying chemicals has created huge ozone holes over the poles, and has reduced global ozone worldwide, seriously threatening all life by increasing cancer rates for all living things. Pillar 3. Interlocking nutrient cycles amongst soil microflora, fungi, bacteria and non vertebrates have created thick fertile soils which retain moisture, hold nutrients, limit erosion, stimulate plant growth and recycle all plant and animal wastes. Human activity, through over-use of our soils and excessive dependence upon agro-chemicals for fertiliser and pest control, increases erosion, and reduces soil viability. Through the resulting desertification, increase in soil salinity and reduced soil structure, all life is threatening by removing this pillar. Pillar 4. Forest ecosystems, hundreds of millions of years old, have evolved to maximize biodiversity of life, providing many millions of ecological niches which help generate biological resilience which dampens the destructive effects of climatic and other environmental fluctuations and changes. Human activity through deforestation, clearfelling old growth forests around the world, is contributing to habitat destruction at hundreds of thousands of square kilometres per year. This is producing a huge reduction in biodiversity, pushing nearly sixty three thousand plant and animal species per annum, most of them unknown to science, into extinction, so undermining this major pillar of all life. Pillar 5. Waterways and wetlands, created by the interaction of the previous pillars of life, have created sources of fresh, unpolluted waters that recharge aquifers and ground water systems, and through interaction with plants maintain a hydrological cycle that sustains and nurtures all life. Human activity discharges over 70,000 new chemicals previously unknown to life. These are pumped, through sewerage and through the use of excessive amounts of agro and other chemicals in the soils. Huge amounts of fresh water have become polluted, creating algal blooms and eutrophication at the same time as releasing exo-oestrogen and other hormone disruptors which undermine the living pillar of our waterways and wetlands. The view of Earth, as seen from the depths of space or the surface of the moon, offers us for the first time the view of Gaia as a whole, and is a most potent and hopeful symbol of our times. Humanity will continue to exist only by learning to live in symbiotic harmony with the Gaian processes which regulate planetary temperatures, keep our atmosphere breathable, our soils fertile, produce biodiversity, and keep our water drinkable, not just for humans but for all life. The planet can heal itself from our depredation as we rediscover our own interconnected wholeness. We can use this as a new ethical basis, to create high quality, low consumption lifestyles, which empower us to engage in compassionate action consistent with this vision of the living Earth. We then have a chance to simultaneously heal our shattered fragmented lives and tattered ecosystems, and bring lasting peace to the violent, rapacious and unsustainable global society. What makes the Gaia Foundation unique is that its members create and control their own autonomous projects. Once a member has chosen a project, sharing it with other Gaia members helps improve its effectiveness and build the personal skills and self esteem necessary for it to have a maximum impact. Thus, through its projects, Gaia members seek to -- assist everyone to develop to their full potential, generating opportunities for individual education through stimulating creativity, innovation and fulfilment through awareness and cooperation in community life. create non-consumeristic high quality, low cost, personal and community lifestyles based upon a healthy interrelationship between the induividual, the natural environment, the economy and social life stimulate flexible and resilient economic responses, careful of the social and environmental constraints of a world of diminishing and more costly land, water, energy and resources. promote a socially just, peaceful, participatory and sustainable world economy, nurturing personal local responsibility and self determination as the best means of overcoming major problems. Throughout the world, groups of people are seeking to change their way of life to live in harmony with the rhythms of the living planet. Most find it hard to persevere, as so many social and economic forces constantly promote ever greater levels of consumption and waste. The Gaia Foundation acts as a support group to help those who seek to live in such a saner, simpler fashion. The Projects of the Gaia Foundation provides a vehicle to achieve these goals. If you are interested in some of the kinds of projects to which Gaia Foundation members since 1987, have been involved click on the word project (underlined above). Otherwise click on top of page (below) to return to the top of the document   This site is still under development. The information is current as at Wednesday 12th January 2000. If you have any suggested improvements please email us at gaiawest@iinet.net.au