SEPTEMBER BOOK OF THE MONTH

REVIEWER: Dave Bookless

BOOK: Not the End of the World: How we can be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet
Author: Hannah Ritchie
(Chatto & Windus, 2024) 352pp, hardback, RRP £22.00

Hannah Ritchie’s argument is compelling. As a young student of Environmental Geoscience she learned all the ways humanity is destroying the planet, and was left in despair at ‘the deadweight of endless unsolvable problems’ (p.2). Then she started to analyse the data at a macro level, working for ‘Our World in Data’ and Oxford University. She became convinced the doomsday messages are often untrue, give science a bad name, and paralyse people into giving up. The book’s basic premise is simple: we face huge and important environmental challenges, but we have the solutions to most of them. With urgent optimism, we can and must build a sustainable future.

Does the book live up to the hype? Yes and no! It is well-written, balancing stories, data and argument with clarity; academically rigorous yet very readable. It considers eight huge issues: sustainability, air pollution, climate change, deforestation, food, biodiversity loss, ocean plastics and overfishing, picking apart the populist headlines to examine the key trends and potential solutions. I think the book puts too much faith in technological solutions and behavioural change. There are many ‘If we do this …’ statements: but the sad truth is we’ve known that for a long time yet haven’t! A biblical understanding of human nature and ‘ecological conversion’ is more realistic than eco-optimism borne of desperation.

My main reservation is this book could be dangerous in the wrong hands. There’s a fine line between optimism that drives action and complacency that delays it. If you want ammunition to support the myth that addressing our problems can be indefinitely delayed, you’ll overlook the calls to urgent action and just grab the ‘it’s not as bad as you thought’ headlines. I was shocked when a self-confessed Christian apologist for fossil fuels and climate scepticism started quoting the book at me. He had clearly read it very selectively. However, if anyone despairs about the future, this book is a powerful tonic. In every area, whilst the problems we face are massive and urgent, there are many ways to make the world more sustainable. Our ultimate future hope rests in God, but this book – read with an open mind – can stimulate us to work towards a world where people and nature thrive.

Reviewer: Dave Bookless
Dave Bookless is Head of Theology for A Rocha International.