Thinking it through

Ecology has been my interest from when I was very very young. It still is,but recently my interests have been enlarged to include evolution, DNA , GAIA. and Consciousness. How does it all fit together? I do not think of the Earth is a living organism in the normal sense but it is the best way to think of it. Evolution is a fact not just a theory and DNA research confirms it. Consciousness remains the real problem but my feelings are that it's evolution started when life began and has evolved with it. Anyway that's a start.