Are We the Last Generation — or the First Sustainable One? | Hannah Ritchie | TED

The word "sustainability" gets thrown around a lot these days. But what does it actually mean for humanity to be sustainable? Environmental data scientist Hannah Ritchie digs into the numbers behind human progress across centuries, unpacking why the conventional understanding of sustainability is misleading and showing how we can be the first generation of humans to actually achieve it.

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[Baraz_Red]

Excellent. We need more strong speakers like her in Humanity, that face facts directly and seek realistic solutions. Despair is not an option.

[princeadaml.odango]

The intro says a lot about why Generalized anxiety has become more and more prominent.

[MrPaddy]

I recently read Hannah's book 'Not the End of the World' and found Hannah's case for optimism from our dire predicament quite strenuous and unconvincing, and she constructed a lot of straw men in the book in order to make her points. Her use of data in her book was selective to say the least. I also noted a number of inaccuracies (or at least significant divergencies from my own understanding of our predicament).
She has also struggled to justify a lot of the positions she adopted in her own book. The section on de-growth was particularly ill informed, and the idea that renewables can replace fossil fuels, simply fanciful. I also struggled with her 'war' metaphor in the book, which I found bizarre. Her claim to absolute apolitical objectivity also, clearly indefensible.
I don't concur with Hannah's definition of a 'doomer'. I regard myself as a doomer in that I think I have a realistic understanding of our predicament and tend not to seek solace in cognitive dissonance or denial. I try to be a grown up and face the grim reality of our predicament. That doesn't mean that I will ever give up hope in our ability to address some of the worst impacts of climate change - far from it - but I do push back against baseless optimism, which I regard as dangerous. Panic is an important human emotion as it can help us to conjure up the motivation and will to act on our worst fears. Buffering people from panic is unhelpful. In respect of the climate crisis, too much panic is not our problem, not enough panic is our problem.
It's a shame, because I so want to encounter a positive narrative on the climate crisis in which I can believe. Hope is so difficult to come by, that I really willed Hannah to provide a convincing space for hope, but alas, I struggled to find it in her book. In order to make her somewhat plaintive case for optimism, Hannah found herself contorting and making use of accounting tricks and statistical sleight of hand. These strategies needed to be exposed. They are the same strategies used by climate deniers to such great effect.
I think Bill Gates, and perhaps Elon Musk, had much more influence on this book than Hannah would ever admit. The book is a techno-optimist, neoliberal manifesto and highly ideological and, despite Hannah's assertions to the contrary, very political. She seems to be suggesting that there is a 'business as usual' route to addressing climate change and the book repeats the myth that 'we have the technology in place to solve this' - an assertion that, for me, has never stood up to scrutiny. I found it a troubling book.

[vicaya]

Reduce animal suffering is required to achieve sustainability.

[alegalegg]

The massive elephant in the room is inequality, *today* which is a barrier to reaching human well being more than anything else. You cannot tackle a political subject like sustainability but shy away from inequality. As a data scientist you will sure appreciate Thomas Piketty's work, ( Capital in the Twenty-First Century) as he assembled virually unassailable data-based evidence on the increase in inequality. So, no not all trends improve. And the consequence is that the world could already have been a better place. And it will be a real struggle to improve it, if most of the money keeps going to a tiny minority interested in keeping the status quo. So if we don;t tackle this problem I fear that the things you advocate for will not happen. If you ever expand the book you have written, my suggestion would be to include inequality and its consequences. Thanks to Picketty you would have lots of data to draw from.

[JanAinali]

It rhymes well with the ending "we need to do it bigger and much, much faster" that the example of the multistory bike rack in Amsterdam is already obsolete. It was too small, so it has been closed and replaced with a super fresh underground manned bike garage with the capacity of 7, 000 bikes (and a smaller one for 4, 000 bikes on the other side of the train station).

[MegaSnail]

Thank you so much for sharing your data in such a compelling way. The hope you have shared brought a tear to my eye. As a lifelong environmentalist it's so wonderful to hear some optimism for a change. Be well.

[Dalayur]

Thank you TED for getting back on track with an excelent talk, which is properly data driven and rational. Great job mrs. Ritchie, we need you!

[maxblair]

It's odd that she cites increasing crop yields as that has come only through the ubiquitous use of fossil based fertilizer, pesticides, and a whole host of damaging agricultural techniques that have degraded the soil and environment to dangerous levels. Furthermore, the mining necessary for the renewables and electric cars she advocates come with their own strong dose of environmental destruction and human oppression. Optimism is so alluring but is it based in reality? The only hope is for widespread acceptance of the need for dramatic lifestyle change away from consumption, extraction, and exploitation of animals.

[TennesseeJed]

If she is half right, then she is ten times more hopeful than I am.

[abhayanand]

I dream of living in complete sustainable and eco-friendly environment!

[beelx-dragons]

Great video but it's a bit scewed in terms of what information gets presented.

An example would be the fact that there are lines, which ones crossed start feeding into themselves in terms of global warming, such as greenlands ice having trapped methane gas in its ice as well as all glaciers acting as reflecting surfaces that cool down the earth by not absorbing as much solar energy. The more of them that melt the faster everything else starts heating up.

Another would be the fact that electric cars are worse for the enviroment unless each unit is used for a significant amount of time, (I do not remember the exact amount but it was somewhere between 6-10 years if memory serves) due to the increased emissions when producing and assembling everything for an electric car compared to a combustion based one. Something which the current use and replace mindset of our economy doesn't encourage.

A third would be the fact that a very large part of the earths populace lives in said developing countries. One example being india, which last time I checked contained slightly more than 20% of the worlds population.

It's great that things are changing and the human race probably won't go extingt at this point, after all we're resilient bastards as a species. But it's a bit of a too little too late situation from what I have gathered.

For everyone who've read this far:
Thank you for reading my needlessly long message and remember to do your own research, don't trust anything I or anyone else says without fact checking it. My information could very well be outdated or sttaight up wrong, or I could've missed a vital new factor which this talk didn't mention.

[MikmikAlpine]

This is one of the best TED talks and best approaches towards sustainability that I have heard in a very long time. Thank you

[SumFugaziSalt]

I appreciate her rosy outlook, but the data points she chose are very selective and really do not encompass the big picture. I’d recommend taking a look at Nate Hagens podcast for a far far more complete summary through a realist lens.

[shivamhargunani]

This was brilliant! Thank you for all the work that you do, Hannah 👏👏👏

[paulhasselsmonning]

New narrative needed. Hannah Ritchie delivers an optimistic and datarich perspective to current and new generations to come. Kudos!

[Mustachioed_Mollusk]

Whatever happens most people are just along for the ride. It seems like most fail to learn basic scientific literacy.

[bryceemanuel]

“stopping people from dying is never a sacrifice” what a word

[MasonGoss-rqvv]

Great stuff. Vital to see evidence of progress and that this is a winnable fight. Momentum is building, and I’m optimistic. Thank you!

[davidthang]

This is inspirational! Hope this trend increases in the future