Description

** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER **
**A FINANCIAL TIMES, GUARDIAN, WAITROSE WEEKEND BEST SUMMER READ**

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

Feeling anxious, powerless, or confused about the future of our planet? This book will transform how you see our biggest environmental problems — and how we can solve them.

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

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.

‘Practical and truly essential’ MARGARET ATWOOD * ‘Does for the environment what Hans Rosling did for health’ BILL GATES * ‘Invigorating, inspiring, often surprising’ DAVID WALLACE-WELLS * ‘I find it hard to express how much I love this book’ RUTGER BREGMAN * ‘An unmissable myth-busting book to save our planet – read it’ TIM SPECTOR

Publisher Review

I love Hannah Ritchie... I love this book. I emerged from it feeling hopeful, which is a high-priced commodity these days -- JOHN GREEN An inspiring data-mine which gives us not only real guidance, but the most necessary ingredient of all: hope -- 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 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, author of Human Kind: A Hopeful History Such a clear-eyed view of the state we're in -- TIM HARFORD, author of How to Make the World Add Up 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 Some deny there are environmental problems, others deny that we can solve them. Hannah Ritchie reveals that they are both wrong -- JOHAN NORBERG, author of In Defense of Global Capitalism and Progress A refreshingly upbeat guide to achieving sustainability -- GAIA VINCE, author of Nomad Century The surprising message in the data is that human civilization is far along toward solving planetary problems -- STEWART BRAND, founder of Whole Earth Catalog and author of Whole Earth Discipline