Here On Earth

Credited with discovering more species than Darwin,praised for his “ability to take complex ideas and—seemingly effortlessly—make them accessible” (Sydney Morning Herald ), Tim Flannery is one of the world’s most influential scientists and a best-selling author. In his newest book, Here on Earth—an immediate Australian best seller—he has written a captivating and dramatic narrative about the origins of life and the history of our planet.

Beginningat the moment of creation with the Big Bang, Here on Earth explores theevolution of Earth from a galactic cloud of dust and gas to a planet with a metallic core and early signs of life within a billion years of being created. In a compelling narrative, Flannery describes the formation of the Earth’s crust and atmosphere, as well as the transformation of the planet’s oceans from toxic brews of metals (such as iron, copper, and lead) to life-sustaining bodies covering 70 percentof the planet’s surface. Life, Flannery shows, first appeared in these oceans in the form of microscopic plants and bacteria, and these metals served as catalysts for the earliest biological processes known to exist.

From this starting point, Flannery tells the fascinating story of the evolution of our own species, exploring several early humanspecies—from the diminutive creatures (the famed hobbits) who lived in Africa around two million years ago to Homo erectus—before turning his attention to Homo sapiens, who first started leaving Africa some fifty thousand years ago. Drawing on Charles Darwin’s and Alfred Russell Wallace’s theories of evolution and Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, Tim Flannery’s Here on Earth is a dazzling account of life on our planet.

“Suppose you want to be well informed,but you’re busy and don’t have the time to read lots of books. Wouldn’tit be wonderful if there were one delightfully written book that told youeverything you’d like to know about humans, the Earth, sex, sperm counts, war,our future, and hundreds of other subjects? Here it is. You’ll discoverwhy Tim Flannery’s books have made him the rock star of modern science.”—JaredDiamond, Pulitzer-prize-winning author of Guns, Germs and Steel

“Here on Earth is confident,clarion—a tocsin, indeed—both intellectually bracing and lanky in reach, fullof answer-and-call and polymath in its enthusiasms. It’s got a rush. I wasmightily impressed.”— Edward Hoagland, author of Sex and the River Styx

“In dangerous times—which every branchof the biological field sciences believes we’re living in—your prayer is for amodulated, informed voice, someone with a sense of compassion for the world andlegitimate reasons to be hopeful. You get all this and more with Tim Flanneryin Here on Earth. He takes the politics and rancor out of the discussionwe must have about our fate.”—Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams

“Hereon Earth is a large book with large ideas. But beyond its scientific prowessand clarity on our species’ evolutionary history, Tim Flannery has created alove story about the nature of life.”—Terry Tempest Williams, author of FindingBeauty in a Broken World

"A lyrical, informed investigationinto the human as ecological agent, and a provocation to act responsibly."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Tim Flannery’s new book Here onEarth is a high watermark in popular science writing and an impressivefeat of science salesmanship. It would take a hard, uncomprehending heart tocome away from this book without enriched sympathy for the natural world.” —SydneyMorning Herald

“Here on Earth . . . is a history of the planet that asks: Arehumans constituted by natural selection to be so selfish and greedy that we’redoomed to catastrophe? . . . Here a thoughtful and literate scientist isprompted by the climate crisis to cast his zoological eye on the history of ourspecies and to speculate on its evolutionary trajectory.” —The AustralianLiterary Review

“Flannery is not merely a scientist, he is also an entertainer. . . . Hedeploys fantastic imagery and eye-popping factoids with aplomb, whilecondensing great volumes of hard science into his text . . . [bringing] to themost arcane topics an infectious enthusiasm coupled with a real talent fornarrative and explanation.” —The Weekend Australian