An important work of Currier's is the oratorio Gaian Variations, his largest - and the only one touching on controversy. Gaia theory had been considered controversial since its introduction in the early 1970s, but as Currier was in the middle of working on his score, more than 1,000 scientists from over 100 countries came together under the auspices of the United Nations to sign a Declaration which states at the outset,"The Earth System behaves as a single, self-regulating system." Lovelock's primary assertion of planetary-scale self-regulation had gradually become accepted wisdom, despite the relentless criticism of figures like neo-Darwinist Richard Dawkins.