How did Earth become habitable? This fundamental question is answered by the book 'Living on Earth. Rock and Life', published by CNRS Éditions. Co-authored by Yves Godderis, a researcher at the Géosciences environnement Toulouse (GET/OMP) laboratory, and Edwige Armand, the book deciphers the permanent interactions between rocks, water, atmosphere, and living organisms for nearly four billion years.
These different compartments form a closely linked system, whose exchanges contribute to shaping terrestrial environments and regulating climate over the long term. Rock weathering releases chemical elements essential for life, while living organisms transform rocks and influence major geochemical cycles. These interactions have been crucial for Earth's evolution and for maintaining conditions compatible with liquid water.
However, this geological balance is today profoundly disturbed by human activities. Greenhouse gas emissions, resource exploitation, and ecosystem transformations are altering the planet's major regulatory mechanisms, with potentially long-lasting disturbances lasting hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years.
By exploring the relationships between the geosphere and biosphere, the book offers a fascinating reading of our planet's history and the mechanisms that condition its habitability. It also invites us to become aware of the fragility of these balances and to rethink our way of living on Earth.
At the crossroads of Earth and environmental sciences, 'Living on Earth. Rock and Life' provides keys to better understand our planet's current transformations and the environmental challenges we face.
