Gaia question

So reading Abbey's section I had a thought concerning one of the questions brought up in the section.
Somebody questioning the concept of Gaia asks how it could be possible if certain creatures and components of the planet aren't aware of the overall scheme of the planet as a whole entity. My question then is, does a component of the Earth NEED to be aware of the big picture? Think of a human being. Does an arm truly know what the job of the leg is?

Language

It seems one of our major problems is how to connect to other species. Without doing so we can't begin to see things from their point of view. It doesn't seem like we can learn their languages, at least not fully, so perhaps we can teach them one of our languages. In my book the latest chapter shows studies of sign language being taught to great apes. It shows some incredible findings, such as mothers teaching signs to their children with aid from humans. Also it shows apes adapting signs to mean new things such as the sign for poop to mean dirty, for example, one ape using this sign to call someone bad. This could be a huge step towards making a great connection to other species.