-
Lovelock begins to define the idea of a self-regulating Earth while working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
-
The Gaia Hypothesis proposed by James Lovelock suggests that living organisms on the planet interact with their surrounding inorganic environment to form a synergetic and self-regulating system that created, and now maintains, the climate and biochemical conditions that make life on Earth possible.
-
Astronaut William Anders takes the Earthrise photo from Apollo 8 on December 24.
-
The hypothesis receives little attention from scientists.
-
Lovelock publishes the Gaia hypothesis in book form.
-
The first public symposium on the Gaia hypothesis, Is The Earth A Living Organism?, is held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from August 1–6.
-
Climatologist Stephen Schneider organizes a conference of the American Geophysical Union.