Reading Humanists Book Group

Join us for a lively and stimulating discussion with like-minded people in a relaxed atmosphere. For our next book we've decided to discuss an optimistic view of the environmental challenges that we face: Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie.

If you're 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.

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.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER which will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about climate change

• 'Truly essential' MARGARET ATWOOD
• 'Eye-opening and essential' BILL GATES
• ‘I find it hard to express how much I love this book’ RUTGER BREGMAN
• 'The climate and environmental crisis now has its Hans Rosling' DAVID WALLACE-WELLS
• 'An unmissable myth-busting book to save our planet – read it' TIM SPECTOR

Hannah Ritchie is deputy editor and research leader at Our World in Data, an online publication making data and research on the world's largest problems accessible and understandable for non-experts. She is a senior researcher at the University of Oxford, where she studies how environmental issues intersect with others like poverty, global health and education. She has also done extensive research into the question of how to feed everyone in the world a nutritious diet without wrecking the planet. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Economist and New Scientist.

You can find reviews of the book on Goodreads: Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie

For those wishing to participate in our discussion, we have a group on Goodreads from which you can see all the books we're discussing and make comments and recommendations to other members of the group. Goodreads: Reading Humanists group.