My hope for this book was to get a beginner's course in climate change - both what has been reported over the past several decades but also the on the ground work that might not be widely known. In this respect, The Fragile Earth certainly delivered. As one would guess, it's hard, if not completely illogical, to be optimistic after reading this, but there were many worthwhile stories (some of which didn't even have climate change as the main focus necessarily). This is a collection I feel like I will draw from for some time.