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How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet
by Hannah Ritchie
This "truly essential" book will transform how you see our biggest environmental problems (Margaret Atwood)—and explains how we can solve them.
It's become common to tell kids that they're going to die from climate change. We are constantly bombarded by doomsday headlines that tell us the soil won't be able to support crops, fish will vanish from our oceans, and 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. In fact, the data shows we've made so much progress on these problems that we could be on track to achieve true sustainability for the first time in human history. Did you know that carbon emissions per capita are actually down, deforestation peaked back in the 1980s, the air we breathe now is vastly improved from centuries ago, and more people died from natural disasters a hundred years ago?
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. Not the End of the World will give you the tools to understand our current crisis and make lifestyle changes that actually have an impact. Hannah cuts through the noise by outlining 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.
"Combining scientific expertise with convincing statistics, an Oxford researcher offers an antidote to do-nothing doomsayers...This book is a refreshing change and, as a call to further action, puts forward a sensible, equitable agenda." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Not the End of the World is eye-opening and essential. With comprehensive data and sometimes counterintuitive conclusions, Hannah Ritchie does for the environment what Hans Rosling did for health. She argues that we shouldn't be nostalgic for a time when half the global population died before adulthood, and she makes a convincing case that things are getting better—even though there's so much more to do. I hope people around the world read this book, understand our planet isn't a lost cause, and get inspired to help fix it." ―Bill Gates, author of How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
"An inspiring data-mine which gives us not only real guidance, but the most necessary ingredient of all: hope ... truly essential" ―Margaret Atwood, TED2023
"The climate and environmental crisis now has its Hans Rosling. Hannah Ritchie has charted an invigorating, inspiring, often surprising tour of recent human history and the many marks of progress it contains. Will the world make good on that optimism in the future? That is up to the rest of us." ―David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth
"I find it hard to express how much I love this book. Hannah Ritchie brilliantly picks up where Hans Rosling left off. Her book shines with practicality and positivity. It will banish your feelings of doom, help you focus on what's really important, and make you want to be a part of the most effective solutions to our greatest challenges. Let's get this book into the hands of as many policy makers, politicians and fellow citizens as possible." ―Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind
"An unmissable myth-busting book to save our planet— read it." ―Tim Spector, author of Food For Life
"Data is a superpower. Let Hannah Ritchie show you the world as it really is. Then go out and change it for the better." ―Mark Lynas, author of Six Degrees
This information about Not the End of the World was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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. 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."
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