Peter Godfrey-Smith - Living On Earth (Harper Collins, 2024) ***

This book is the follow-up of Peter Godfrey-Smith's "Metazoa", a book that I really liked for the new insights it brought to me regarding the emergence of consciousness in animals. It is the final book in the trilogy that started with "Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life", which I haven't read. 

This book is less scientific and more observational, like a documentary. He describes the animals he watched under water, in the jungle, in the desert and other places, but without adding many new scientific insights, just adding additional examples and depth to what he wrote earlier. The book ends with a strong plea to safeguard the planet and its vulnerable ecosystem, a topic that we fully endorse. 

We are destroing the earth's riches and wonder and surprises. Sentient beings that took millions of years to develop, with all their skills and features of today, are being wiped out by the dumbest of all animals. We agree, of course, but I did not buy the book to confirm my opinion.