It's very easy to take a hammer to things. But it's a lot easier to smash than to build.

You haven't given us any reason to believe that Gray is not just another in a long line of complainers; the dour quotes about science never being used chiefly to pursue truth, or improve human life, when juxtaposed with the idea that humans cannot and should not save the world...and the observation of the horrors of the black death, malaria, river blindness, and so on, seems witless or barbaric, depending on how charitable you are.

Can't you say something about the book that goes beyond the (not reassuring) blurb?

The reason why we seek to control our environment as humans is in large part because it is not all rainbows and unicorns. There is genuine, dire suffering, even without us making things worse by killing each other. Famine and pestilence have plagued humans for as long as we have recorded history.

There is a very good case to make that liberal-humanism-on-autopilot is a problem. But if the alternative is not worse, you have to sincerely recognize what the upsides are, and before pointing the criticism at liberalism or humanism, it's a good idea to muse about the autopilot.