Then, as the climate cools, algal activity and DMS levels decrease and so the cycle continues. However biologists, although they readily conceded that life forms influenced the biosphere, were not satisfied and opposed Gaia because they could not see how organisms had evolved to behave in a way that regulates the planet. Natural selection works at the level of the individual, weeding out those that are poorly adapted to their particular environment. Large cumulus clouds often have several new towers rising behind the main bulk of the cloud as if something inside them is generating new sources of latent heat. The benefits of successfully colonising a new area are so great that organisms will evolve to send their progeny away from home even if they never end up in a better place.
Dispersal is the third priority for an organism, after survival and reproduction.
We suggest that algae have evolved a specific means of actively getting themselves into the air. Further research is of course needed to support the theory but we can begin to see how life on earth is involved in regulating climate, not just passively but actively. This marks the turning point in the Gaia theory. Biologists are beginning to take the idea seriously. Life forms are orchestrating the elements and there is a link between their survival and climate control and the future of life forms on this planet.