Hannah Ritchie

Hannah Ritchie
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh (BSc, MSc, PhD)
Known forOur World in Data
Scientific career
FieldsClimate change
Global development
Food systems
Energy
Malnutrition
InstitutionsUniversity of Oxford
ThesisGlobal food systems: addressing malnutrition through sustainable system pathways (2018)
Doctoral advisorDavid Reay
Pete Higgins
Websitehannahritchie.com Edit this at Wikidata

Hannah Ritchie is a Scottish data scientist, senior researcher at the University of Oxford in the Oxford Martin School, and deputy editor at Our World in Data. Her work focuses on sustainability, in relation to climate change, energy, food and agriculture, biodiversity, air pollution, deforestation, and public health.

Her first book, Not the End of the World, was published in 2024 by Chatto & Windus.

Early life and education

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Hannah Ritchie trained in environmental science at the University of Edinburgh. She earned her undergraduate degree in environmental geoscience and a master's degree in carbon management.[1]

She remained in Scotland for her Ph.D., researching malnutrition and global food systems. She created a scalable framework to understand food system pathways and identify losses, allocations and conversions.[2] In particular, she looked to understand whether it was possible to feed a growing population without damaging the environment.[3] Ritchie is vegan.[4]

Research

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Ritchie started her career as a lecturer in sustainability at the University of Edinburgh. She developed teaching programs focused on sustainability.[5] She left Edinburgh to start a research position at the University of Oxford, where she developed data visualizations to communicate information.[3]

Ritchie's early work considered food systems and how it was essential to adapt to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.[6] For example, she has argued that for most foods, the carbon footprint is barely impacted by transport.[7]

In 2017 Ritchie joined Our World in Data as Head of Research. Her work focuses on environmental sustainability, including topics such as climate change, energy, food and agriculture, biodiversity, air pollution, and deforestation.[8] During the COVID-19 pandemic, she built the Our World in Data COVID-19 information dashboard.[9] In 2023 she became Deputy Editor and Lead Researcher.[10]

In 2024 Chatto & Windus published Ritchie's first book, Not the End of the World,[11] which explores her optimism for large-scale problem-solving and ending climate change.[12][13]

Recognition

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In 2022 Ritchie was named Scotland's Youth Climate Champion at the Holyrood Green Giant Awards in recognition of her contributions to the climate-change movement.[14] In 2024, Ritchie was recognised for lifetime achievement with honorary fellowship of the Royal Statistical Society.[15]

Bibliography

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Book

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  • Not the End of the World, Chatto & Windus, 2024, ISBN 9781784745004.[16]

Select papers

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  • "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)" [17]
  • "A global database of COVID-19 vaccination"[18]
  • "CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions"[19]
  • "World Population Growth"[20]
  • Hannah Ritchie, "What We Learned from Acid Rain: By working together, the nations of the world can solve climate change", Scientific American, vol. 330, no. 1 (January 2024), pp. 75–76. "[C]ountries will act only if they know others are willing to do the same. With acid rain, they did act collectively.... We did something similar to restore Earth's protective ozone layer.... [T]he cost of technology really matters.... In the past decade the price of solar energy has fallen by more than 90 percent and that of wind energy by more than 70 percent. Battery costs have tumbled by 98 percent since 1990, bringing the price of electric cars down with them....[T]he stance of elected officials matters more than their party affiliation.... Change can happen – but not on its own. We need to drive it." (p. 76.)

References

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  1. ^ Hannah Ritchie's ORCID 0000-0001-6362-8901
  2. ^ Ritchie, Hannah (2018-11-29). Global food systems : addressing malnutrition through sustainable system pathways. ed.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Edinburgh. hdl:1842/33270. OCLC 1085199475. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.764079. Open access icon
  3. ^ a b "Hannah Ritchie". The New York Times. May 2024. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  4. ^ "Hannah Ritchie". ed.ac.uk. The University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  5. ^ "Hannah Ritchie". edx.org. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  6. ^ "Healing the planet with our food choices with Dr Hannah Ritchie". The Proof. 2021-03-16. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  7. ^ Puckett, Susan (2022-09-14). "Eating seasonally and locally has many benefits. Is fighting the climate crisis one of them?". cnn.com. CNN. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  8. ^ "Our Team". Our World in Data. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  9. ^ Vaughan, Adam (2021-05-28). "Hannah Ritchie interview: The woman giving covid-19 data to the world". newscientist.com. New Scientist. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  10. ^ "Our Team". Our World in Data. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  11. ^ Bayley, Sian (2022-03-01). "Chatto & Windus snaps up 'radically hopeful' look at future of planet Earth by scientist Ritchie". thebookseller. The Bookseller. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  12. ^ Chivers, Tom (2022-10-09). "Everything you thought you knew about how to fix the climate is probably wrong". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  13. ^ Ritchie, Hannah (2021-11-01). "Stop Telling Kids They'll Die From Climate Change". wired.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  14. ^ "Holyrood Green Giant Awards 2022". Holyrood Events. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  15. ^ "Honorary Fellowship".
  16. ^ Ritchie, Hannah (2024). Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 9781784745004.
  17. ^ Hannah Ritchie; Edouard Mathieu; Lucas Rodés-Guirao; et al. (2020). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data. Wikidata Q113387718.
  18. ^ Edouard Mathieu; Hannah Ritchie; Esteban Ortiz-Ospina; Max Roser; Joe Hasell; Cameron Appel; Charlie Giattino; Lucas Rodés-Guirao (10 May 2021). "A global database of COVID-19 vaccinations". Nature Human Behaviour. doi:10.1038/S41562-021-01122-8. ISSN 2397-3374. Wikidata Q107202624.
  19. ^ Ritchie, Hannah; Roser, Max; Rosado, Pablo (2020-05-11). "CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions". Our World in Data.
  20. ^ Roser, Max; Ritchie, Hannah; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Rodés-Guirao, Lucas (2013-05-09). "World Population Growth". Our World in Data.
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