In 20 short books, Penguin Classics brings you the new canon of great environmental works James Lovelock (b. 1919) is an independent scientist and father of the Gaia Hypothesis, which sees the Earth as a single self-regulating system that sustains all life, from the surface rocks and oceans to the atmosphere and humanity. Here he draws on decades of wisdom to lay out the history of our remarkable planet, to show that it is not ours to be exploited - and warns us that it is fighting back.