Nonino Prize “To a Master of our Time” 1996

James Lovelock

 

MOTIVATION

To James Lovelock, English scientist, founder of a new discipline, geophysiology. In his most famous book, “Gaia. New ideas about ecology”, Lovelock supported the thesis of the Earth as a living organism, resuming, with the name of Gaia, the image that dominates Hesiod’s “Theogony”, the poem written between the Eighth and the Ninth century before Christ. Lovelock’s ideas are those of a lonely thinker and have contributed to re-evaluate the modern scientific tensions, always keeping in mind that we cannot violate scot free the harmony of the world where we live.

The prize is delivered by Ermanno Olmi.