What the news won't tell you about climate change | Hannah Ritchie, PhD

About the video: “You can find examples of really big environmental problems that we've already solved.” Climate change is solvable, argues Hannah Ritchie.

Doomerism about the state of the planet is widespread right now. Many see climate change as an insurmountable problem that we won’t be able to tackle. But the reality tells a different story, says data scientist Hannah Ritchie.

By stepping back to look at the data and at how the world has changed over centuries, you can actually find examples of really big environmental problems that we've already solved.

By tracing the evolution of human history, we can see that human progress was often very much in conflict with environmental impact. The more that humans progressed, the more the environment degraded. Ritchie argues that now, we're in a unique position where these two things are no longer in conflict, thanks to recent technologies that decouple our human wellbeing with our environmental impact.

Timestamps:
0:00 - An ‘insurmountable’ problem?
1:10 - 4 key targets to solve climate change
04:27 - How we reduce our emissions
09:36 - Being an ‘urgent optimist’

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About Hannah Ritchie:
Hannah Ritchie is a data scientist and science communicator focused on the largest problems that shape our world, and how to solve them.

Ritchie's work focuses on environmental sustainability, including climate change, energy, food and agriculture, biodiversity, air pollution and deforestation.

Ritchie is a Deputy Editor and Lead Researcher at Our World in Data, and a researcher at the Oxford Martin Programme in Global Development, at the University of Oxford.

[Elleh]

I don't feel doomed be because these problems are unsolvable. I feel doomed because the people in charge refuse to solve them and people are disenfranchised and powerless to hold the people in charge accountable.

[isolationnationn]

The problems are solvable. That’s why it’s depressing that nothing is being solved.

[tctommie]

It's not only climate, but also the loss of biodiversity and nature.

[kazstrankowski]

Why is the burden of reducing emissions on the average citizen when the majority of the pollution is created by energy generation, industry, and manufacturing? We have all been recycling for years only to find out that almost none of it is recycled. This is a governance issue...

[presbiteroo]

I think the only reason people are pessimistic is because not much is being done. This would change very quickly is there was a real interest in making things better.

[paulwheaton]

I cannot control politicians, industry or billionaires. But I have chipped away at my own 30 tons of CO2. Gardening, planting trees, dramatically reducing the energy I use, and heating with a rocket mass heater. No sacrifice - everything is about making a better life AND it happens to chip away at my CO2. I think I am now in the space of chipping away CO2 for others.

[shaykespeeer]

IF the solutions are NOT profitable, the wealthiest don't give a shite.

[Christian-gbzf]

We’re not incapable of developing solutions. We’re bad at implementing solutions

[NihilBeat]

Not factoring in the structural forces of capitalism as a source of overproduction and overexploitation of human and nature is really a big shortcoming of videos like these.

[nufh]

During my childhood, people fixed the ozone layer issue caused by aerosol products, and at that time, there was no social media yet.

[steviek]

The military isn’t mentioned in the video or in these comments. That’s too bad since war and the military have destroyed much of the lands that can be used for sustainable growth as well as much of the economic energy of human creativity. Destroying (entropy) materials versus designing and building the future answers to huge questions will be the factor that either leads to a positive future or a terrible dystopia

[HMohr]

She forgot to mention the greatest technology we have to tackle climate collapse: BIODIVERSITY

[davidbarry]

2:50 very misleading chart. It ignores:
a) the RATE at which those minerals have been mined in the past, which implies that it will take hundreds of years to extract the amounts needed
b) the increasing difficulty and energy costs of extraction of minerals from their base ores (all the easy stuff has been extracted already),
c) the tiny little issue of these being the requirements for a single generation of "renewables", with a typical current lifespan of 20 years, and materials recycling rates well below 50%
d) very dodgy assumptions of just how much power is needed to replace current fossil fuel use, especially on a seasonal basis (focusing just on electricity demand ignores all the other needs)
e) materials costs of the electric-only transportation switch (cars, trucks, trains, ships etc.) and electricity transmission and grid battery backup infrastructure (all enormous in their own rights), i.e. the demand side (focusing only on the energy production side ignores most of the materials requirements)
f) the environmental impacts of trying to mine all those resources, which typically require shifting TONS of rock to extract tiny amounts of useful minerals
g) the growing social resistance to solar and wind farms in every part of the world, simply because of the large area of land required (let's hope Geothermal does not have this issue)

[GirtonOramsay]

It would be great to start with using less plastic on EVERYTHING in the supermarket and remove single-use items for drinks/food in restaurants. Why not ban drive thrus while you're at it and get lazy people to actually order their food inside instead of idling in their car for 10+ minutes

[santomuro]

I’ve planted at least 100 large trees in my life so far, and intend to plant thousands more once I can buy some land to regenerate.

Figured that’s about the best thing I could do.

[debyte]

Human Climate Change crisis action: there is a massive difference between ‘can’ and ‘will’.

[dcartier]

Life is not possible without ecostasis. The ecostasis we enjoy today is mediated by life. If we keep diminishing biodiversity, we ARE doomed.

[TheoWerewolf]

I can't help thinking this is missing the actual problem. No one with any understanding of science believes climate change is unsolvable. It's HOW we get there and what we need to change/give up along the way, and perhaps most, how to do it within the constraints of a free market economy and a popularity-driven political system that is also pro free market to the point where it doesn't want to regulate anything.
When you look at most "recycling" and green initiatives, it quickly becomes clear that they do little to stop businesses from polluting, rather they push the cost of dealing with the consequences of bad product choices to the consumer, where it has almost no real effect. Like shopping bags. We used to have free paper bags. Then businesses switched to plastic because they were cheaper per bag, but they were will free to the consumer. Then the gov stepped in and levied a nickel per bag - which the store kept. So it wasn't an incentive to stop using bags for the store - in fact, it was an incentive for the store to KEEP offering them - and since most people didn't bring bags with them, they still used bags., Next the gov banned them but allowed paper bags back in (a dodgy decision since paper has issues in land fills too) but the stores started charging as much as 25c a bag when it used to be free., That pushed the cost to the consumer either by buying paper bags or buying reusable ones - which ALSO had environmental issues (and people will still buy paper if they forget their cloth bags).
Sliced cheese is another great example: single slice wrapped cheese is very efficient for the producer and the consumer, but generates tons of plastic. But it's what the consumer likes and regular sliced cheeses either sticks together, or you have to put paper between the slices, either way, wasteful and more expensive. So again, there's no incentive for the producer to find a better way. THEY don't pay for the recycling of all that plastic. The consumer does.
EV cars are clearly a better option, but... ICE cars are easier to operate - they take 6 minutes to refill, there are gas stations everywhere and while they are more complicated, the reality is that most modern cars are really well built. Worse, EVs are hard to get - there's a chronic shortage and the base price is almost double that of the ICE cars.
These are the actual kinds of problems that need to be solved.
Good luck with that.

[williamupdike]

Right, on the bright side of life, she speaks correctly about solutions. Doubt everyone will remember all she said, but she is correct. Problem is that that we are not in any way keeping up with the problem side of things. Forests shrink, deserts increase, population grows, GHGs increase at much faster rates these days, and misinformation is almost everywhere. This is not easy, will be the challenge of all time to keep things livable over the next few decades.

[seekthetruth]

The real issue isn’t people not doing enough, there are a lot of good people stressing and doing everything they can to help. The problem is the fundamental way our societies are built. We require people to make decisions that aren’t the best for our planet.

Driving - most of North America is built for cars, and for getting to work, people need to drive. Public transit either isn’t available or is terrible.

Garbage - recycling is a lie. Most items are landfill. I was and still do my best to reduce my consumption but at the end of the day, we don’t have systems in place to recycle or reuse our waste

Animal products - unfortunately most the world loves meat, and that’s not gonna change any time soon. It’s built in us from our ancestral past. With the amount of people that are on the planet, it takes a big toll.

So what can be done? Unfortunately not much. This planet is resilient and will exterminate us eventually. If you’re thinking about having children, think really hard about what kind of life they will have, and not about what you want.

Do you best to live modestly, buy used whenever you can, reduce your waste and know that you’ve done everything in your power to make a difference.