Synopsis
The New York Times Bestseller
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 conceptual twists and wonderful character’ - Ed Yong, author of An Immense World
'Poetic . . . engaging . . . lucid' - The Times Literary Supplement
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.
'Wide-ranging and thought-provoking' - The Guardian
'A compelling account of interconnectedness' - New Scientist
Details
12 June 2025
9781529038200Reviews
This is the book I'd been waiting for. It tells my favorite kind of science story: one that seems at first counter-intuitive, but then quickly becomes obviously true – a story so important and compelling that I am going to be recommending it for years.Hank Green, co-host of Vlogbrothers
Becoming Earth is a glorious paean to our living world, full of achingly beautiful passages, mind-bending conceptual twists, and wonderful characters. Ferris Jabr reveals how Earth not only gave rise to life, and now teems with it, but has also been profoundly, miraculously shaped by it.Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and author of An Immense World, winner of the Royal Society Science Book Prize
I did not expect to experience joy when I opened Becoming Earth, but I did, and I do. The ambition, eloquence, and erudition in this dragonfly droneflight of a book are absolutely exhilarating.John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather and winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize 2023
An astonishing book, weaving together science, history, and the author's unfailingly precise observations with the grace of a poet.Steve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize
