Understanding Environmental Problems and Human Progress

When I start to feel overwhelmed by the climate challenges we face, I turn to Hannah Ritchie, a researcher at Our World in Data. Her data-driven approach is an essential antidote to environmental doomsday-ism and provides some much-needed optimism about humanity’s ability to tackle big problems. I recently sat down with Hannah to talk about her terrific new book Not the End of the World, why it’s so hard to wrap our minds around human progress, what we would ask a time traveler about the future, and more.

• Not the End of the World: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/hannah-ritchie/not-the-end-of-the-world/9780316536752/

• Hannah’s TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl3VVrggKz4

• Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/

• Environmental Kuznets curve: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuznets_curve#Environmental_Kuznets_curve

• Prolific Machines: https://www.prolific-machines.com/

• Life is Grand by Camper Van Beethoven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0axoVpNadYM&ab_channel=indieitunes