Not the end of the world
Senior sustainability researcher at Oxford University, Hannah Ritchie follows the example of Hans Rosling and takes a rigorous look at the facts relating to the climate crisis.
There are two main strands to her subsequent argument.
The first is that humanity’s response has actually gone faster and further than anyone might have expected. She identifies important and reliable patterns, meticulously supported by evidence, relating to emissions, plastics, biodiversity loss and population size, which give grounds for hope.
The second is that technology gives us a better chance than ever before in human history of creating a truly sustainable world. She persuasively widens the definition of ‘sustainable’ to go beyond eking out a wretched subsistence. Simple example: we tend to think the quality of the air we breathe, especially in cities, is worse than ever before. But in fact, even before the industrial revolution, most people breathed in huge amounts of highly toxic woodsmoke particulates from cooking fires.
Ritchie is no Pollyanna and she stresses that we need to do much more and act much faster. But she concludes that, far from global heating heralding the end of the world, there are plenty of reasons for optimism.