Not the End of the World

Hannah Ritchie works at Our World in Data that compiles and publishes datasets on large global problems such as poverty, climate change, diseases, war, or inequality so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that her book Not the End of the World is based in numbers and science. The book is thoughtful and concise journey through 7 major environmental problems - air pollution, climate change, deforestation, food, biodiversity loss, ocean plastics, and overfishing; each chapter explaining current state, how we got there, and what can we do to ensure a sustainable future.

While it’s hard to summarize a book that overflows with a trove of information, there a few underlying concepts and takeaways that stand out. First, while we are under constant barrage of negative news from the outlets, things are in many cases getting better. Civilization is past the peak of deforestation, air quality, or population growth. This doesn’t apply universally, with large discrepancies between first and third world countries, but we (modern countries) are equipped better than every to help countries that are catching up and raising out of poverty.

Secondly, while there’s room for more optimism than many people have, we still need to alter our trajectory in problems such as global warming. Hannah provides suggestions as to how at the end of each chapter and many of the changes have overreaching impact to more than one environmental problem that we are facing. For example, beef consumption contributes to deforestation and water pollution while being the least efficient source of protein (comparing ratios such as water or carbon emissions to gram of protein with other sources). People switching to or lowering their consumption of beef would be a major environmental win.

Lastly, a topic which unfortunately doesn’t get a lot of space in the book, we are at the mercy of policy makers and governments in many regards. It’s important to advocate and vote for people that can make changes higher up and we might just have a chance to be the first truly sustainable generation.

The optimism in Not the End of the World in infectious and reminds me of Enlightement Now by Steven Pinker. On the other hand, there are organizations advocating for policies and laws that align with Hannas ideas but to no avail. The established incentives often contradict what’s best for the planet and fighting against oil companies with billion budgets for lobbying and teams of lawyers on retainer is an uphill battle. I don’t think there is an easy solution and Not the End of the World doesn’t provide an answer either, the best one can do is small steps on personal level and to vote for people that care about the future generations.

If you find these topics interesting Our World in Data has a daily data insight and biweekly digest newsletter that you can subscribe to on ourworldindata.org. Alternatively, both can be accessed as an RSS feed.

Info

Title: Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet
Author: Hannah Ritchie
ISBN10: 031653675X
ISBN13: 9781784745004