Lynn Margulis - Earth Quotes

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The fundamental division of forms of life on Earth is not that between plants and animals, as is commonly assumed, but between prokaryotes—organisms composed of cells with no nucleus, that is, bacteria—and eukaryotes—all other life forms.

Lynn Margulis
The question "What is Life?" is... a linguistic trap. To answer according to the rules of grammar, we must supply a noun, a thing. But life on Earth is more like a verb. It repairs, maintains, re-creates, and outdoes itself.

Lynn Margulis
Evolution is no linear family tree, but change in the single multidimensional being that has grown to cover the entire surface of Earth.

Lynn Margulis
Not only did life originate on earth very early in its history as a planet, but for the first two billion years, Earth was inhabited solely by bacteria.

Lynn Margulis
Gaia is a tough bitch. People think the earth is going to die and they have to save it, that's ridiculous…There's no doubt that Gaia can compensate for our output of greenhouse gases, but the environment that's left will not be happy for any people.

Lynn Margulis
There is little doubt that the planetary patina—including ourselves—is autopoietic. Life at the surface of the Earth seems to regulate itself in the face of external perturbation, and does so without regard for the individuals and species that compose it. More than 99.99 percent of the species that have ever existed have become extinct, but the planetary patina, with its army of cells, have continued for more than three billion years.... trillions of communicating, evolving microbes. The visible world is a late-arriving, overgrown portion of the microcosm, and it functions only because of its well-developed connection with the microcosm's activities.

Lynn Margulis