Not the End of the World

October 1, 2023
Combining scientific expertise with convincing statistics, an Oxford researcher offers an antidote to do-nothing doomsayers. At some point, despair over climate-related issues has become fashionable, to the point where many people choose not to have children. This attitude, writes Ritchie, an Oxford academic specializing in environmental science and deputy editor and lead researcher at the authoritative Our World in Data group, is mere foolishness. In her first book, she sets the record straight, drawing on a wealth of data to show a pattern of steady improvement in everything from infant mortality to deforestation to air pollution. On the issue of climate change, she notes that global per capita emissions are steadily falling, and the trends point toward an absolute decrease in the foreseeable future. In the U.S., since 2005 "emissions have fallen by a quarter both domestically and when we adjust for offshoring." Ritchie makes clear that she is a firm believer in climate change; her thesis is that improvements have happened, and should continue to happen, through concerted action at the government and regulatory levels, as well as technological advances. Hand-wringing and whining get you nowhere, and the author points to problems that have been addressed--e.g., acid rain and the deterioration of the ozone layer, to show that co-operative answers are achievable. She has sharp words for journalists who take a few lines from a detailed scientific report out of context in search of a sensational headline, and for those people who seem determined to believe the worst. "Doomsayers are not interested in solutions," she says. "They have already given up. They often try to stand in the way of them." Ignore them, Ritchie suggests, and get to work instead. This book is a refreshing change and, as a call to further action, puts forward a sensible, equitable agenda.

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December 1, 2023

This energetic book argues that while humanity has significantly altered the natural world, surrendering to despair about that fact is not only counterproductive but unrealistic. Ritchie (senior researcher, Programme for Global Development, Univ. of Oxford) demonstrates that although it's hard to escape grief about climate change and the despoiling of the Earth, over-generalizing can miss certain subtle but still significant efforts toward stopping and reversing human-caused environmental disasters. For example, she unpacks the dataset showing the near-extinction of black rhinos in eastern and southern Africa, and argues that the dominant narrative ignores that one of the two black rhino populations is showing significant growth. Ritchie takes great care to be informative about the specifics of human environmental impacts but discourages consuming narrowly defined statistics as absolute truth. She does not, however, let society off the hook; her book makes clear that it's up to humanity to repair and improve its relationship with the natural world. VERDICT Ritchie expertly coaxes readers out of the pit of despair and into a metaphorical lab that's bright, working, and committed to ecological problem-solving.--Dorian Gossy

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