Out on June 25, 2024 from Random House. Slated for translation into eight languages. Now available for preorder everywhere

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The notion of a living world is one of humanity’s oldest beliefs. Though once scorned by some scientists, the concept of Earth as a vast interconnected living system has gained acceptance in recent decades. A relatively young field called Earth system science now studies the living and nonliving components of the planet as an integrated whole. We, and all living things, are more than inhabitants of Earth—we are Earth, an outgrowth of its structure and an engine of its evolution. Life and its environment have coevolved for billions of years, transforming a lump of orbiting rock into the cosmic oasis we call home. Life breathed oxygen into the atmosphere, dyed the sky blue, concocted the modern oceans, and converted barren crust into fertile soil. Over time, life became a critical component of our planet’s capacity to regulate its climate and maintain balance, endowing Earth with remarkable resilience on geological timescales.

To reveal life’s profound influence on the planet, acclaimed science writer Ferris Jabr transports the reader to some of the world's most extraordinary places: a former gold mine nearly one mile underground, an experimental nature reserve in remote Siberia, and an observatory perched on a dizzyingly tall tower in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. He shows us how plants and other photosynthetic organisms help preserve a level of atmospheric oxygen high enough to support complex life, but not so high as to make Earth disastrously flammable. We learn how microorganisms carve immense caverns, produce new minerals, concentrate precious metals—and perhaps even played a role in the formation of the continents themselves. We see how animals as diverse as elephants, prairie dogs, and termites sculpt the planet’s landmasses and facilitate nutrient cycles; how kelp forests, coral reefs, and shellfish store huge amounts of carbon, buffer ocean acidity, improve water quality, and defend shorelines from severe weather; how bacteria seed clouds and promote rain; how miniscule plankton become mountains and monuments; and so much more.

Humans are one of the most extreme examples of life transforming Earth. Through fossil fuel consumption, industrial agriculture, and pollution, we have dramatically altered more aspects of the planet in less time than any other species, pushing Earth into a state of crisis. But humans are also in a unique position to understand and protect the planet’s wondrous ecology and self-stabilizing processes. Jabr introduces us to a diverse cast of fascinating characters—scientists, artists, and inventors; firefighters, spelunkers, and beachcombers—who have devoted themselves to this vital work. With compelling narrative, evocative descriptions, and lucid explanations, he shows us how Earth became the world as we’ve known it, how it is rapidly becoming a very different world, and how we—we who are alive at this crucial moment in the planet’s history—will ultimately help determine what kind of Earth our descendants inherit for millennia to come.

PRAISE FOR BECOMING EARTH

“A masterwork of journalism—exhaustively researched, wide-ranging, simultaneously intricate in detail and accessible to general readers…With the curiosity of a reporter, the mind of a scientist, and the lyricism of a poet, Jabr explores the extraordinary tapestry of life…Popular science writing at its very best.”

—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“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 winner and bestselling author of An Immense World

“Ferris Jabr explores the many ways life has transformed the planet over the last three billion years. In the process, he offers a fresh perspective on today's most urgent challenges. Becoming Earth is fascinating, thought-provoking, and, ultimately, inspiring.”

—Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction

"We tend to take our rare jewel of a home planet for granted. In his startlingly beautiful and insightful book, Becoming Earth, Ferris Jabr shows us exactly why we shouldn't. The Earth lives, breathes, and rewrites our history even as we read, reminding us once again that there is in fact no place like home."

—Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Poison Squad

"Becoming Earth is the rare book that asks us to reexamine our fundamental understanding of the planet. Full of rich and surprising insights, it succeeds magnificently."—Joshua Foer, bestselling author of Moonwalking with Einstein

"Becoming Earth is an astonishing book, weaving together science, history, and the author's unfailingly precise observations with the grace of a poet. To read it is to be transformed by a new understanding of our place in what Jabr calls the 'collaborative and improvised performance' that sustains our marvelous home in the Universe.”

—Steve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

"In Becoming Earth, Ferris Jabr exalts life forms as artists of planetary change—microbes become sculptors, yaks are architects, and even forests dance. Jabr is a mesmerizing, even photosynthetic writer in his ability to draw deep meaning from all that he illuminates. I found myself gasping at revelations on every page: clouds heavier than blue whales, windswept plankton that fertilize the Amazon, even the reincarnation of Jabr’s own garden. Jabr’s writing is as alive as Earth itself, and this book will transform your understanding of our presence, and power, on this planet."

—Sabrina Imbler, author of How Far The Light Reaches

“Whether descending nearly a mile into a mine or tending the soil in his backyard garden—whether describing the coevolution of biology and our home planet 3.5 billion years ago or ahead in the human-shaped climate—Ferris Jabr weaves a fresh and mesmerizing meditation on what it means to be alive, as a species and a planet.”

—Andrew Revkin, renowned environmental journalist and author

“Thrilling. Ferris Jabr reveals the fascinating and cutting edge science of life’s intricate connections with Earth’s chemistry, water cycle, rock record, soil, and air. And he shows us how these connections are profoundly relevant to human civilization. The result is more than excellent science journalism—it evokes wonder.”

—Tyler Volk, Earth system scientist, New York University, and author of Gaia's Body: Toward a Physiology of Earth

“Ferris Jabr has an uncanny ability to explore and explain some of the greatest mysteries of the universe, and his sentences are both luscious and limpid…Jabr is an exceptional new science writer, and this urgent book is poised to influence larger conversations about climate change and the environment.”

—The Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant Jury

“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. A rare thing at the best of times, it is especially welcome now, in this dawning age of precarity, when we need, more than ever, to fall back in love with the world...Yes, and yes, and yes again!”

—John Vaillant, author of The Golden Spruce, The Tiger, and Fire Weather, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize, and finalist for the National Book Award

"Gorgeously written and brimming with fascinating science and provocative ideas, Becoming Earth is a book about transformation that is itself transformative. Dive into it and you will come to see our world as Ferris Jabr sees it: a thrumming, breathing entity that doesn't merely harbor life, it is life." 

—Dan Fagin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Toms River

"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. Absolutely packed with delicious nuggets of insight. I fell into this book and when I emerged, it had deeply changed the way I see what is, by far, the best planet.”

—Hank Green, New York Times bestselling author and science communicator 

“As a writer, Jabr is chimerical: he has the sharp eyes of a scientist, the big ears of a journalist, and the liquid-silver tongue of a poet. There are times, reading this paradigm-shifting book, when you will feel like you are peering right down into the very heart of our living planet. It is, quite simply, a work of genius.”

—Robert Moor, bestselling author of On Trails: An Exploration

"Wow. This wondrous book reveals our living planet for the miracle that it is. By the end, you may even feel that 'miracle' is an understatement. The story of Earth is the story of a planet reworked, remade—and, to an astonishing degree, created—by life itself."

—Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel 

“Becoming Earth is a remarkable achievement: a loving homage to our glorious planet that's at once as thematically vast as the ocean, and as precise on the page as a fungal filament. Ferris Jabr, a science writer with a poet’s soul, is among the few scribes worthy of serving as biographer for the life-encrusted rock we call home.”

—Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager and Crossings and winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing award

“It’s a rare science book that can move you to tears. Ferris Jabr’s poetic writing and extensive research have made me see our beautiful planet in a whole new light. Becoming Earth is a candy store of mind-blowing facts and fascinating anecdotes, showing the complex and wonderful ways the world has been shaped by the creatures that live on it. I loved it.”

—Kate Marvel, climate scientist and author

“A fresh and compelling argument that Earth is a living planet. Jabr takes you from the bottom of the mile-deep Homestake Mine in South Dakota to the top of the 1,066-foot Amazon Tall Tower Observatory in Brazil. A fascinating read that should help everyone appreciate the splendor of our natural environment."

—James Kasting, Professor of Geosciences, Penn State University