Not the End of the World
Hannah Ritchie, a data scientist at the University of Oxford, grew tired of the gap between climate headlines and what the data actually shows. In this book she works through air pollution, climate change, deforestation, food, plastics, and extinction, using charts and evidence to separate real problems from exaggerated fears. Her argument is not that everything is fine, but that despair is both wrong and unhelpful, and that humanity has the tools to fix what is broken. The result is a clear, level-headed case for what she calls urgent optimism.
Also by Hannah Ritchie
All works by Hannah Ritchie →
What you might want to know about Not the End of the World
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
An Oxford data scientist uses hard numbers to argue that doom is not inevitable and that this could be the first generation to build a sustainable planet.
Yes. Bill Gates named it among his favorite books of 2023, praising its data-driven approach to climate and the environment.
Not the End of the World was written by Hannah Ritchie, published in 2024 by Little, Brown Spark.
Not the End of the World is 352 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Not the End of the World takes most readers 5 to 8 hours to finish.
Not the End of the World is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.