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An interesting bit of history
Sep. 29th, 2008 07:45 amI was listening to Living on Earth on my iPod and heard this interesting bit of interview between Steven Curwood and Sir David Attenborough (on a book tour about his book, "Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery." I wish this insight had been as famous as some of Master Da Vinci's thoughts and inventions.
CURWOOD: Leonardo, the quintessential—perhaps the definitional—renaissance man. In your book, Sir David, you quote something that he wrote around 1490 that shows that he was even formulating a Gaia hypothesis. Could you read from that for us please?
ATTENBOROUGH: Well, Leonardo wrote: 'Just as man is composed of earth, water, air and fire, so this body of the earth is similar. Whereas man has bones within himself, the supports and frameworks of the flesh, the world has rocks, the supports of the earth. If man has within him the lake of blood wherein the lungs expand and contract in breathing, the body of Earth has its ocean, which also expands and contracts every six hours with the breathing of the world. As from the said lake of blood arise the veins, which spread their branches through the human body. Likewise, the ocean fills the body of the earth with an infinite number of veins of water.'
CURWOOD: So indeed, a vision that the earth is an organism — the Gaia hypothesis — just like a human. And we get this from Leonardo da Vinci in 1490.
ATTENBOROUGH: That's correct.
CURWOOD: I guess today's environmentalists should move over for a moment.
ATTENBOROUGH: (laughs) But it's a remarkable vision, isn't it? And it shows such understanding of both the earth and the body.
CURWOOD: Leonardo, the quintessential—perhaps the definitional—renaissance man. In your book, Sir David, you quote something that he wrote around 1490 that shows that he was even formulating a Gaia hypothesis. Could you read from that for us please?
ATTENBOROUGH: Well, Leonardo wrote: 'Just as man is composed of earth, water, air and fire, so this body of the earth is similar. Whereas man has bones within himself, the supports and frameworks of the flesh, the world has rocks, the supports of the earth. If man has within him the lake of blood wherein the lungs expand and contract in breathing, the body of Earth has its ocean, which also expands and contracts every six hours with the breathing of the world. As from the said lake of blood arise the veins, which spread their branches through the human body. Likewise, the ocean fills the body of the earth with an infinite number of veins of water.'
CURWOOD: So indeed, a vision that the earth is an organism — the Gaia hypothesis — just like a human. And we get this from Leonardo da Vinci in 1490.
ATTENBOROUGH: That's correct.
CURWOOD: I guess today's environmentalists should move over for a moment.
ATTENBOROUGH: (laughs) But it's a remarkable vision, isn't it? And it shows such understanding of both the earth and the body.
