Not the end of the world
Time for my thoughts on Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie. I finished it several months ago and should have written about it back when it was fresher in my mind, but better late than never. If you have the slightest interest in environmental issues then I totally recommend this book! Avoiding the extremes of doomerism and denialism, she lays out the data on the state of the environment, how it compares to the past, and what we can can do improve things. The following article has some extracts.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/02/hannah-ritchie-not-the-end-of-the-world-extract-climate-crisis
Some of the bits that especially caught my attention were:
Seeing as there is so much media focus on the 'climate chaos' that we're now enduring, it's only natural to assume that deaths from climate related natural disasters have increased. They haven't. Due to a decrease in poverty and an increase in preparedness, over the past century these deaths have massively decreased.
https://humanprogress.org/natural-disasters-claim-fewer-lives/
Meat eating on the whole is far worse on the environment than a vegan or vegeterian diet. But by far the biggest offender is beef, which has the worst environmental impact by pretty much any metric (land use, water use, CO2 footprint) you choose to measure.
Air quality in metropolitan areas is improving the world over. A century ago the air pollution in London was worse than any city in the world today! Fossil fuels get a lot of negative press due to their carbon footprint, but what I didn't realise was just how many people they still kill from simple air pollution, especially in the developing world.
Hannah is firmly in favor of both nuclear power and renewables. It made me think of the environmental movements initial opposition to nuclear power. Greenpeace, I'm looking at you here. Years ago I listened to a friend tell the tale of some of her friends indulging in anti-nuclear activism which aimed to get a plant shut down... or prevented from being renewed or expanded (I forget the exact details, it was half a lifetime ago). At the time I thought little other "yayyy, activism". Now I think, thank god I never got involved in the anti muclear movement in my younger years.
In the same way I was originally entertained by her tale of friends invading a field and ripping up GM crops, including an activist dressed as Death who got arrested, which admittedly would have been a very funny thing to see. Now I look at Greenpeace's opposition to Golden Rice and think you're not the good guys here any longer.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/25/greenpeace-blocks-planting-of-lifesaving-golden-rice-philippines
At the tender age of eighteen Boyan Slat started his own company The Ocean Cleanup to create machines that clear garbage from the world's rivers and oceans. This is precisely the sort of innovative tech driven approach which we should be championing.
https://theoceancleanup.com/about/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/02/hannah-ritchie-not-the-end-of-the-world-extract-climate-crisis
Some of the bits that especially caught my attention were:
Seeing as there is so much media focus on the 'climate chaos' that we're now enduring, it's only natural to assume that deaths from climate related natural disasters have increased. They haven't. Due to a decrease in poverty and an increase in preparedness, over the past century these deaths have massively decreased.
https://humanprogress.org/natural-disasters-claim-fewer-lives/
Meat eating on the whole is far worse on the environment than a vegan or vegeterian diet. But by far the biggest offender is beef, which has the worst environmental impact by pretty much any metric (land use, water use, CO2 footprint) you choose to measure.
Air quality in metropolitan areas is improving the world over. A century ago the air pollution in London was worse than any city in the world today! Fossil fuels get a lot of negative press due to their carbon footprint, but what I didn't realise was just how many people they still kill from simple air pollution, especially in the developing world.
Hannah is firmly in favor of both nuclear power and renewables. It made me think of the environmental movements initial opposition to nuclear power. Greenpeace, I'm looking at you here. Years ago I listened to a friend tell the tale of some of her friends indulging in anti-nuclear activism which aimed to get a plant shut down... or prevented from being renewed or expanded (I forget the exact details, it was half a lifetime ago). At the time I thought little other "yayyy, activism". Now I think, thank god I never got involved in the anti muclear movement in my younger years.
In the same way I was originally entertained by her tale of friends invading a field and ripping up GM crops, including an activist dressed as Death who got arrested, which admittedly would have been a very funny thing to see. Now I look at Greenpeace's opposition to Golden Rice and think you're not the good guys here any longer.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/25/greenpeace-blocks-planting-of-lifesaving-golden-rice-philippines
At the tender age of eighteen Boyan Slat started his own company The Ocean Cleanup to create machines that clear garbage from the world's rivers and oceans. This is precisely the sort of innovative tech driven approach which we should be championing.
https://theoceancleanup.com/about/