Description

This book will transform how you see our biggest environmental problems – and show how together we can solve them.

** THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER **

‘Truly essential’ MARGARET ATWOOD
‘Inspiring’ DAVID WALLACE-WELLS
‘Shines with positivity’ RUTGER BREGMAN
‘Unmissable’ TIM SPECTOR

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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.

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‘A book for anyone who finds it difficult to believe in a better future’ THE TIMES

‘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

A STYLIST BEST NON-FICTION 2024 * A GUARDIAN BIGGEST FICTION AND NON-FICTION FOR 2024 * A WATERSTONES ‘BOOK YOU NEED TO READ IN 2024’

Publisher Review

This is a book for anyone who finds it difficult to believe in a better future. It’s the most uplifting book I’ve read all year — Ben Cooke * The Times * An unmissable myth-busting book to save our planet – read it — TIM SPECTOR 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 * Full of “radical hope” digging behind the doomsday predictions to find out ways we can and will make the world a better place * Stylist * 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 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 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