Data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that planetary damage could be about to peak – but that the US election result could be "pivotal".
In a global survey of young people's feelings about climate change, half recently told researchers that they believe "humanity is doomed". In other words, they don't believe that the needs of the current generation can be met without undermining the next. They worry that life as we know it is not sustainable.
Data scientist Hannah Ritchie once believed likewise. As a teenager, she feared that humanity's ravaging of the planet – via everything from climate change to deforestation and overfishing – presented a series of unsolvable problems. Her undergraduate degree, begun at Edinburgh University aged just 16, only seemed to confirm these concerns. "I used to be convinced I didn't have a future left to live for," the now 30-year-old writes in her first book, Not the End of the World.
Today, however, Ritchie feels differently. While she's still worried about the trajectory the world is on, she believes there's hope humanity can turn things around. As deputy editor at Our World In Data and a senior researcher at the University of Oxford, she points to developments and statistics that tell a more optimistic story, from improving air quality to rising EV sales...
There are so many things that hang in the balance with this election. It is a very critical moment in U.S. and world politics.
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