When The Many Waters book was published in 2000, finding other habitable planets was only an idea. Now, over 20 years in the future we are finding other worlds that can may be even better than our Earth…
https://www.space.com/superhabitable-planets
A superhabitable planet is a world that might have an even better chance at hosting life than our own home, Earth.
Space.com
Because Earth is the only known inhabited planet and its life depends on liquid water, efforts to identify exoplanets that could host life focus on Earth-like worlds. But some researchers think there are other types of planets that could offer conditions for life as good as — or even better than — Earth. In fact, some scientists argue that focusing only on Earth-like worlds might be too “anthropocentric and geocentric,” blinding us to the possibilities of exobiology.
The Many Waters 