This week’s book recommendation comes from Jonas Davulis, a member of the Symbiosis Team and active participant in Bio4Climate courses and events. His pick is Becoming Earth: A Journey Through the Hidden Wonders That Bring Our Planet to Life by Ferris Jabr.
“Becoming Earth is the story of how Earth’s inhabitants from microbes to trees have made this rock into the living planet we know today! I read this book with many others here at Bio4Climate last winter as the main dish to Jim Laurie’s Biodiversity #12 course, and I still find myself referencing it whenever I’m talking about the life that sustains us.
Starting from the ground up, you’ll travel deep through the Earth where there’s microbes that eat metal. Step in elephant tracks that become living ponds. And watch the author as they bring back life to their desolate suburban lot. From there you’ll swim through clouds of plankton, forests of kelp, and hordes of plastic! As you catch your breath with some air microbes made, you’ll see the rekindling of indigenous fires on the landscape, and look towards a new sustainable future.
If there’s one thing you’ll take-away, it’s that: ‘We and other living creatures are more than inhabitants of earth; we are earth – an outgrowth of its physical structure and an engine of its global cycles. Earth and its creatures are so closely intertwined that we can think of them as one.’ Page: xiv” – Jonas Davulis
Posted: January 17, 2026