Here are some descriptions of the “Gaia Effect”, first put forward by James Lovelock in his book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979) and many works since.

“All living things on earth (biosphere) function as one SUPERorganism that changes its environment to create conditions that best meet its needs, with the ability to self-regulate critical systems needed to sustain life”

“Over 4.6 billion years the Earth has become self-evolving, self-regulating, self-sustaining”.