Photo of Kaieteur Falls, Guyana, by Graham Watkins

Gaia: the ancient Greek goddess who personified the Earth, now used to mean a complex entity involving the biosphere, atmosphere, oceans and soil, all of them being parts of a feedback system that maintains conditions favourable to life. Also known to Andean and Amazonian indigenous peoples as Pachamama, and cognates of the Great Mother and Mother Earth. The association between creativity, femininity and nature is thus very ancient. It still seems right to use ‘she’ and ‘her’ for nature, even when we know that nature is neither human nor gendered in a human way.