Following on from our earlier mention of Gary Alexander’s book eGaia, here is Keith Parkins’ review on his blog.

I have not had time to read eGaia but I have read the review and it’s not exactly glowing; while it is acknowledged that there is some useful food for thought in the book, Parkins is unimpressed with much of it.

Basic premise of eGaia, is that Gaia needs Man as its nervous system, hence eGaia.

What does it mean for the Earth to function with the coherence of an organism with humanity analogous to its nervous system?

At best this is arrogance.

Gaia functioned without Man, Gaia will continue to function without Man. The best Man can do is act as Custodian of Gaian feedback loops, to claim more is arrogance, the same arrogance that led Man to believe he was Master of Nature.

Man evolved as part of the natural world, was part of nature the downfall of Man was when he became apart from Nature. We need to rewild our natural world, but we also need to rewild ourselves, even if it a a walk barefoot along the seashore, in and out of the water.

He adds his own thoughts on many of the points the book raises. Sometimes the value of a particular work is allowing us to crystallise exactly why we think it is dead wrong.

You can judge for yourself as eGaia is available for free download from here.