Becoming Earth

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. 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.

Auteur
Ferris Jabr is a contributing writer for The New York Times magazine and Scientific American. He has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Foreign Policy, National Geographic, Wired, Outside, McSweeney’s, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his husband, Ryan, their dog, Jack, and more plants than they can count. Becoming Earth is his first book.

Texte du rabat

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.