You refuted any contention that the Gaia Hypothesis is testable science or anything as useful as a real hypothesis. If it were a prize fight, it was really a first-round knock out at Ford's first step. His persistence argument isn't an explanatory mechanism, it provides nothing measurable and makes no predictions.
Here at the end of the article, we get to the real reason this was written: politics, and I find I disagree with your contention that science should not be pressed into the service of political goals.
Ford is not attempting to get the scientific community to view this as science or an avenue for research. He wants to humanize the earth to appeal to our human instincts for mutual caring. It's an emotional appeal intended to create a burning desire to save Gaia like the planet were a loved one. If the idea is appealing, and many people think it is, then it changes their attitudes toward how we, collectively as a body politic treat the planet.
It's a simple change in emotional perspective that dramatically changes political views. Your article tears him apart because he is not advancing the cause of science with his work. That wasn't his intention. He wants to influence people's hearts to change their political decisions. Gaia devotees are not voting to allow oil drilling on government land, or supporting candidates who do.
I disagree with your contention that science should not be pressed into the service of political goals. We use science for technical studies for information and analysis used by decision makers and bureaucrats. Would you suggest we shouldn't study global warming or have a political opinion about the result? Science is pressed into the service of politics all the time.
His writing is not about influencing science. He views his cause as noble. He's trying to influence hearts and minds to advance a political cause he supports. The Gaia hypothesis takes the Mother Earth mythology and makes it more appealing to analytical types and legitimizes it as an acceptable modern point of view. At its core, it's about politics.
If I'm wrong about Ford's motivations, and if he really believes Gaia is a scientific hypothesis worthy of testing and research, then he has lost his mind.
