Description
** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER **
'A book for anyone who finds it difficult to believe in a better future' THE TIMES
Feeling anxious, powerless, or confused about the future of our planet? This book will transform how you see our biggest environmental problems -- and how we can solve them.
A STYLIST BEST NON-FICTION 2024 * A GUARDIAN BIGGEST FICTION AND NON-FICTION FOR 2024 * A WATERSTONES 'BOOK YOU NEED TO READ IN 2024' * A GUARDIAN 'FIVE GREAT READS'
We are bombarded by doomsday headlines that tell us the soil won't be able to support crops, fish will vanish from our oceans, that we should reconsider having children.
But in this bold, radically hopeful book, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that if we zoom out, a very different picture emerges. The data shows we've made so much progress on these problems, and so fast, that we could be on track to achieve true sustainability for the first time in history.
Packed with the latest research, practical guidance and enlightening graphics, this book will make you rethink almost everything you've been told about the environment, from the virtues of eating locally and living in the countryside, to the evils of overpopulation, plastic straws and palm oil. It will give you the tools to understand what works, what doesn't and what we urgently need to focus on so we can leave a sustainable planet for future generations.
These problems are big. But they are solvable. We are not doomed. We can build a better future for everyone. Let's turn that opportunity into reality.
'Practical and truly essential' MARGARET ATWOOD * 'Does for the environment what Hans Rosling did for health' BILL GATES * 'Invigorating, inspiring, often surprising' DAVID WALLACE-WELLS * 'I find it hard to express how much I love this book' RUTGER BREGMAN * 'An unmissable myth-busting book to save our planet - read it' TIM SPECTOR
About the Author
Dr Hannah Ritchie is Senior Researcher in the Programme for Global Development at the University of Oxford. She is also Deputy Editor and Lead Researcher at the highly influential online publication Our World in Data, which brings together the latest data and research on the world's largest problems and makes it accessible for a general audience. Her research appears regularly in the New York Times, Economist, Financial Times, BBC, WIRED, New Scientist and Vox and in bestselling books including Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now, Hans Rosling's Factfulness and Bill Gates's How to Prevent a Climate Disaster. In 2022, Ritchie was named Scotland's Youth Climate Champion and New Scientist called her 'The woman who gave COVID-19 data to the world'.
Reviews
Full of pragmatic, hopeful solutions . . . We urgently need her and people like her - optimists who'll say: you know what, we can turn this around; look at these numbers, look at these solutions -- Bibi van der Zee * Guardian *
An antidote to the hyper-pessimism that pervades climate discourse -- Martha Muir * Financial Times *
I love Hannah Ritchie... I love this book. I emerged from it feeling hopeful, which is a high-priced commodity these days -- JOHN GREEN
That all is not lost and that there is hope is the main message to take away from this well-argued, well-evidenced book -- Nick Renninson * Daily Mail *
There is real peril in our widespread failure to understand just how much human lives have been improved through societal efforts . . . As Ritchie demonstrates, a better future for both people and planet is possible and even achievable -- Earl C Ellis * Science *
It is rare to find a book covering climate change with such an optimistic message . . . An admirable feat . . . a highly readable guide to fixing the planet -- Madeleine Cuff * New Scientist *
Ritchie dismantles many of the worst predictions of ecological doomism, lays out clearly what is already happening, and what tools we have available to us to halt the worst environmental destruction -- Emma Gatten * Telegraph *
Ritchie makes it clear that progress is already happening... Now, we must keep that momentum going -- Megan Kenyon * New Statesman *
An inspiring data-mine which gives us not only real guidance, but the most necessary ingredient of all: hope -- MARGARET ATWOOD, TED2023
Invigorating, inspiring, often surprising -- DAVID WALLACE-WELLS
It shines with practicality and positivity . . . Let's get it into the hands of as many policy makers, politicians and fellow citizens as possible -- RUTGER BREGMAN
Such a clear-eyed view of the state we're in -- TIM HARFORD, author of How to Make the World Add Up
Hopeful... highly readable -- Pilita Clark * Financial Times *
Useful, timely and inspiring * Literary Review *
A refreshing perspective on the problems that the world faces, providing plenty of optimism while not sugar-coating the deep structural challenges at the root of it all -- HELEN CZERSKI, author of Blue Machine
Book Information
ISBN 9781784745004
Author Hannah Ritchie
Format Hardback
Page Count 352
Imprint Chatto & Windus
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 573g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 162mm * 33mm