Lovelock, James E. “The ecopoiesis of daisy world.” Origin and evolution of the Universe: evidence for design (1987): 153-166.
URL1
Truth is said to be stranger than fiction, and this may be why fiction is often more credible than fact. For example, anyone interested in the sociology of Victorian England could read the first great sociologist, Marx, but is more likely to have read Dickens. These thoughts were brought home to me recently following the publication of a book of fiction entitled The Greening of Mars by Allaby and Lovelock (1984). I was surprised by the seriousness of its reception. It was the story of an entrepreneur who made a profit by making the climate of Mars favourable for life. He used cast-off rams and other surplus military hardware to carry to Mars the material needed to transform the environment and make it fit for life. Once it became warm the planet was seeded and allowed to develop its own ecosystem. It eventually became a place where colonists could make a home that was indepen-dent of support from the Earth.
This fiction was intended as entertainment, but it appeared by chance at a moment when many were giving serious thought to colonizing nearby planetary bodies. Among them was Robert Haynes, who visited me in 1984 to discuss what would be needed to establish an ecosystem on Mars. He brought with him his splendid newly minted word “ecopoiesis.” The term refers to the fabrication of an ecosystem or biosphere on a lifeless planet, thereby establishing a new arena in which biological evolution ultimately can proceed independently of that on Earth. The making of a home for life. It seemed particularly well suited to describe our intentions towards Mars; more generally it is applicable to the study of ecosystems on a regional as well as a planetary scale.