British environmental scientist and creator of the Gaia theory, James Lovelock has passed away. He was 103. The Gaia theory hypothesis said that Earth acts as a single living organism.
Lovelock died on Tuesday “surrounded by his family on his 103rd birthday,” a statement from his family released to the Guardian and shared on social media said.
“To the world, he was best known as a scientific pioneer, climate prophet and conceiver of the Gaia Theory,” the statement said. “To us, he was a loving husband and wonderful father with a boundless sense of curiosity a mischievous sense of humor and a passion for nature.”
Lovelock’s family said that, until six months ago, “he was still able to walk along the coast near his home in Dorset and take part in interviews,” but that his health had deteriorated recently due to a bad fall.
“He passed away due to complications related to the fall,” the family said.
The famous environmental scientist was most well known for his Gaia Theory in which the Earth is imagined as a model within which its living and non-living parts interact as a complex system that are essentially a single organism.
He was an early advocate for climate action, and some of his ideas have shaped the way climate scientists and biologists think about the world’s ecosystems today, reported American news outlet CNN.
“James Lovelock made a vast range of contributions to scientific research, from developing instruments to search for life on Mars and creating the electron capture detector,” the Science Museum Group, which acquired the rights to Lovelock’s archive in 2012, said in a statement Wednesday.
“On behalf of colleagues across the Science Museum Group, we wish to send his wife, Sandy, and family our deepest condolences,” the group said.
