The Earth's surface is very young. In the period of 500,000,000 years or so erosion and tectonic processes destroy and recreate most of the Earth's surface and as a result eliminates almost all traces of earlier geologic surface history. The Earth is 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old, but the oldest known rocks are less than 4 billion years old. The oldest fossils of living organisms are less than 3.9 billion years old. There is no record of the critical period when life was first getting started.
Earth is the only planet on which water can exist in liquid form on the surface.
This is, of coarse, essential for life as we know it. The heat capacity of the oceans is also very important in keeping the Earth's temperature stable. Liquid water is also responsible for most of the erosion and weathering of the Earth's contents, a process unique in the solar system today. Without any oxygen we would all die and that's why we have to have a lot of plants around. We are also destroying our Ozone layer which protects us from ultra violet rays that would kill us.