In some ways, 2023 has been a record-breaking year. Since January, the world experienced the hottest day on record, Africa faced its deadliest flood in more than a 100 years and Canada withstood its most destructive wildfire season.
These tragic headlines paint a dire picture. Yet, a wholly pessimistic view of the future of the planet is incomplete.
Alongside these devastating stories are: Solar and wind power prices have plunged, deforestation rates have slowed, and natural disaster-related deaths are lower than they used to be.
For these reasons, and because we can’t afford to let Earth be a lost cause, Hannah Ritchie, the deputy editor and science outreach lead at Our World in Data, believes there’s reason for optimism.
In her debut book, Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet, which will be published in early 2024, Ritchie aims to dispel defeatist worldviews and energize people in the fight against climate change.
Ritchie does so by proposing research- and data-based solutions to solve climate change, air pollution, biodiversity loss and more.
“It often feels like our environmental challenges are insurmountable ... “[but] if we zoom out and look at the data, we can see the massive strides we have already made."
In her book, she not only shows where we’ve come from but lays out a vision of how "we build a sustainable world for this generation and those that follow.”
Until the book comes out, you can peruse how Ritchie masterfully showcases data trends at Our World in Data. (Vox 11/29/23) Dr Hannah Ritchie | Oxford Martin School
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