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In 1979, James Lovelock authored "Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth." In his hypothesis
Lovelock proposes that societies ought to consider living organisms and inorganic material are
part of a dynamical system that shapes the Earth's biosphere and maintains the Earth as a fit
environment for life that humans are impacting. Others have popularized the Gaia Hypothesis,
which was embraced to some extent by New Age environmentalists as part of the heightened
awareness of environmental concerns of the 1990s. As we find ourselves closing the second
decade in the twenty-first century, we can describe our times being characterized by unprecedented
sharing of information via wireless networks and by the emergence of renewable energy
technologies which demarcates a threshold from one world view to another, a jump from an
industrialized conception of nature as immutable and infinite to a Gaia inspired view of nature as
alive, intelligent and, most of all, fragile in the premise of deliberative democracy which highlights
the prominent role of citizens in obtaining meaningful input into decisions and laws made by
elected representatives. As a process, deliberative democracy stimulates and supports levels of
engagement that extend beyond “interest group bargaining or voting in elections” (Gutmann &
Thompson, 2004, p. 4). Gutmann and Thompson (2004) noted that deliberative democracy exhibits
four primary characteristics: “reason-giving, accessibility, decisions that are binding, and a process
that is dynamic and sustained” (p. 6). These characteristics are acknowledged widely by a body of
literature that contributes to the normative understanding of the qualities of deliberative
democracy. This needs to be examined if we are to increase awareness and self-regulated control
into how populations interact with and affect their environment.
Scholars have advanced theories of deliberative practice from a historical perspective
toward the incorporation of participatory and group process, focusing on the elements of
interaction among people gathered for public dialogue. The scholarly research created a
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