Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came To Life
If you are looking for a warm, joyful, thought-provoking and beautifully written book on how life on Earth came into being, you are in the right place.
The first indication that this is not your standard ‘popular science’ book is the dedication; rather than dedicating the book to a loved one or mentor, Ferris Jabr chooses the elements, dinosaurs and other fantastic life forms, and “the growers, builders, thinkers and teachers”. His style of writing – eloquent, evocative, almost poetic – is immediately evident in the introduction, which highlights Jabr’s childlike wonder about our planet and the deeply personal nature of the book.
Becoming Earth is split into three sections: rock, water, and air. For each, Jabr describes his global travels and the people he spoke to along the way, all with one overarching goal: saving Earth. From a deep mine pit in South Dakota, to hunting plankton off the coast of Rhode Island, to delving into geothermal energy in the cold climes of Iceland, Jabr chats to a seemingly endless line of researchers who are chipping away at climate issues in today’s world.
Palaeontology, human occupation and use, and the effect that has had on the planet are covered in depth within each chapter, as well as a discussion of what we can do to mitigate these negative effects. The text is absolutely packed full of interesting (if often quite dispiriting) facts, as well as making the enthusiasm of both the writer and his interview subjects abundantly clear.
For full disclosure, this feels like the ideal time to mention the underlying theory that Jabr ascribes to. Developed by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in the 1970’s, the Gaia hypothesis proposes that living organisms interact with the Earth to create a self-regulating system. It has been controversial from the beginning, with many scientists disagreeing vociferously with the idea (even Jabr admits “Gaia is closer to a conceptual framework than a strict hypothesis”). Nevertheless, he has chosen to use this framework to build his book upon, and it can be a little jarring.
That aside, Becoming Earth is a fascinating book that will hold your interest right until the end. The ethereally beautiful way Jabr tells inspirational stories of new research being conducted just about outweighs the often quite heart-rending facts about the current state of our planet and what humans are doing to it.
Review by Melanie Brehaut
DETAILS
BY: Ferris Jabr (2024) Picador, 304pp. (pbk/hbk/ebook)
ISBN: 9780593133996
PRICE: £12.99 panmacmillan.org
