On Jun 22, 9:42*pm, "Robert J. Kolker" wrote:
Yousuf Khan wrote:

And according to the Gaia Hypothesis, life on Earth itself will evolve
to absorb and subsume any climate conditions that will lead to runaway
greenhouse effects.

The planet is not a living organism. Organism live on the planet.

Not that he said that...

I read Yousef's comment as discussing the effect of "life on Earth"
collectively. not that the earth itself is alive, nor that he
personally endorses the Gaia 'Hypothesis' (really a New-Age neo-
religion).

The consequence of non-equilibrium thermodynamics (see Prigogene, for
example) is that 'dissipative systems' (such as 'organic life') that
absorb absorb energy and reduce entropy are almost inevitable wherever
a system has a net energy influx, a solvent which can affect the
constituents of the system, and a potential for a phase transition in
the solvent. The temperature and phase changes will differentiate and
segregate the constituents,
producing 'organized' structures and reducing entropy locally.

Bob Kolker

Tom Davidson
Richmond, VA