Becoming Earth

Ferris Jabr

£22.00

We send all orders via Royal Mail: within the UK, choose from 1st Class, 2nd Class or Special Delivery; for the rest of the world, International Standard or International Tracked. Delivery and packaging charges are calculated automatically at the checkout.

To collect orders in person from the Bookshop, choose Click and Collect at the checkout.


Pan Macmillan
29 August 2024
ISBN: 9781529038156
Hardback
304 pages

From the publisher

A revolutionary account of Earth as a living organism – a finely-tuned planetary network made up of all living and non-living things – which provides an unusual degree of hope for its future.

A radically thought-provoking account of a major shift in how we understand our Earth, not simply as an inanimate planet on which life evolved, but rather as a planet that came to life.

'Full of achingly beautiful passages, mind-bending conceptual twists, and wonderful characters.' – Ed Yong, author of An Immense World, winner of the Royal Society Science Book Prize

'The ambition, eloquence, and erudition in this dragonfly droneflight of a book are absolutely exhilarating.' – John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize


The notion of a living world is one of humanity’s oldest beliefs. Though once scorned by many scientists, the concept of Earth as a vast interconnected living system has gained acceptance in recent decades. Life not only adapts to its surroundings – it also shapes them in dramatic and enduring ways. Over billions of years, life transformed a lump of orbiting rock into our cosmic oasis, breathing oxygen into the atmosphere, concocting the modern oceans, and turning rock into fertile soil. Life is intertwined with Earth’s capacity to regulate its climate and maintain balance.

Through compelling narrative, evocative descriptions, and lucid explanations, Ferris Jabr shows us how Earth became the world we’ve known, how it is rapidly becoming a very different world, and how we will determine what kind of Earth our descendants inherit for millennia to come.

'Fascinating, thought-provoking, and, ultimately, inspiring.' – Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction