The Fragile Earth: Writing from The New Yorker on Climate Change

This collection brings together three decades of New Yorker essays about climate change, 21 in all. Arranged into broad themes around what caused the current crisis, what effects are we seeing, and what solutions are offered, the book manages to avoid some potential pitfalls of topical anthologies: repetitiveness of content or tone and unevenness of quality. The “global” in global climate change means that possible subjects are wide-ranging both geographically and in potential ramifications to explore, and editor Remmick chooses well to represent this variety. Bill McKibben (The End of Nature) and his successor Elizabeth Kolbert (The Sixth Extinction) are represented by multiple articles each, including those that formed the basis of their bestselling books. Virtually all of the selections are similarly immersive and engaging; only Jonathan Franzen’s autobiographical contribution seems tonally out of place. Reading three decades of essays on this important and urgent topic, one is appalled that we know so much and have repeatedly done so little with that knowledge, as well as simultaneously hopeful and skeptical that technological solutions can save us now.