The triumph of the Gaia hypothesis was to spot the extraordinary influence of Life on the Earth. ‘Life’ is the clade including all extant living beings, as distinct from ‘life’ the class of properties common to all living beings. ‘Gaia’ is Life plus its effects on habitability. Life’s influence on the Earth was hard to spot for several reasons: biologists missed it because they focused on life not Life; climatologists missed it because Life is hard to see in the Earth’s energy balance; Earth system scientists opted instead for abiotic or human-centred approaches to the Earth system; Scientists in general were repelled by teleological arguments that Life acts to maintain habitable conditions. Instead, we reason from organisms’ metabolisms outwards, showing how Life’s coupling to its environment has led to profound effects on Earth’s habitability. Recognising Life’s impact on Earth and learning from it could be critical to understanding and successfully navigating the Anthropocene.

盖亚假说的成功之处在于发现了生命对地球的非凡影响。“生命”是包括所有现存生物的进化枝，不同于“生命”是所有生物共有的财产类别。盖亚（Gaia）是生命及其对可居住性的影响。很难发现生命对地球的影响有以下几个原因：生物学家错过了它，因为他们只关注生命而不是生命。气候学家错过了它，因为在地球的能量平衡中很难看到生命。相反，地球系统科学家选择了以非生物或以人为中心的地球系统方法。总体上，科学家对目的论论断表示反对，认为生命的作用是维持可居住的条件。取而代之的是，我们从生物体的新陈代谢向外推断，这表明生命与环境的耦合如何对地球的可居住性产生了深远的影响。