Hannah Ritchie says: “We are living in the best of times.” Ritchie is a data scientist at the University of Oxford. As lead researcher at the website Our World in Data, she looks at the long-term data that maps the state of the Earth. Her book “Hope for the Desperate” has just been published; the original title of the work is even more catchy: “Not the End of the World”.

In the interview, Ritchie, 30, explained to my colleague Alina Schadwinkel why her research gives her reason for hope - and how intuition sometimes prevents us from making the right decisions.

An example of the latter: Ritchie, who advocates for a low-carbon lifestyle, told Alina about her lunch, a veggie bagel with a meat substitute. She had taken the sausage-like bagel topping out of a plastic packaging and warmed it in the microwave.

Doesn't sound particularly sustainable? But it is, says the researcher: “Meat substitutes may seem unnatural, but they are much better for the environment than meat; "It saves water, carbon dioxide and space," she explains. "Packaging only accounts for a tiny part of a food's ecological footprint, but often extends its shelf life. And the microwave is the most efficient way to cook.«

But even though she knows all this, sometimes it still feels wrong. "Unfortunately, intuition often prevents us from doing the right thing when it comes to protecting the environment - even people who are sincere about it."

Ritchie sees hope for the future of the planet in the data she evaluates. It is true that humanity faces enormous challenges. But many things are better today than in the past. "Around one in ten people in the world doesn't have enough food," she says, "but if we look back 50 years, there were far more."

She also sees a positive trend in the gradual withdrawal of the internal combustion engine. Although only just under one in five of the cars sold worldwide in 2023 were electric, just looking at that would distort the picture. If you look back further, you will see an encouraging development in the statistics: in 2020 it was less than 4 percent, in 2019 it was just over 2 percent.

Every person can also do something to preserve their living space, says Ritchie: For example, by consuming less meat and dairy products, throwing away less food, getting to their destination by bus, train or bike instead of driving, and heating more economically.

And Ritchie advises: “Buy fewer things!”

You can read the interview here.

Heartfelt,

Yours, Julia Koch

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