Our World in Data

WebsiteData on Human Progress
Written By Mathew Hampshire-Waugh

By Max Roser, Hannah Ritchie and team.

https://ourworldindata.org/

Our World in Data is a tremendously useful online resource which collects, collates, and presents data on all the World’s greatest challenges including poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality. The information is presented using interactive visuals with accompanying text, download options, and meticulous referencing.

The ambition is to make better use of the existing research, knowledge, and data out there by making it both easily accessible and understandable. “Our World in Data is about Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems”. And they are doing a fantastic job.

The website is free to use, and the charts and data are free to share (with citation). There is an abundance of information on the site and it has served as the first port of call for much of my research into human progress, with the excellent referencing making it easy to delve deeper into each topic.

Our World in Data is providing a much needed, objective perspective on the world at a time when misinformation, post-truth, and fake news are running riot. Log on and tune in.

Bookshelf
The Future We Choose
The Future We Choose

The Future We Choose, is a high-level, easy-to-read introduction to Climate Change which will appeal to most readers and provides a well grounded introduction to possible solutions.

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CLIMATE CHANGE and the road to NET-ZERO
CLIMATE CHANGE and the road to NET-ZERO

CLIMATE CHANGE and the road to NET-ZERO blows away the entrenched idea that solving climate change is a trade-off between the economy and environment to reveal why a twenty year transition to NET-ZERO is a win-win for all on planet Earth.

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We Are The Weather - Saving The Planet Begins At Breakfast
We Are The Weather - Saving The Planet Begins At Breakfast

The latest non-fiction offering from Jonathan Safran Foer weaves a winding network of narratives around climate change and the consumption of animal products. The book gets you thinking about our relationship with both the planet and the animal world.

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Limits to Growth - The 30 Year Update
Limits to Growth - The 30 Year Update

The 30 year update is now 20 years old but for anyone interested in the interaction between economy and environment this book is a must read. It provides a clear (though basic) framework of how to think about human welfare with respect to the pressures on Earth’s ‘sources and sinks’ using an integrated approach between economic modelling and physical modelling.

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Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal
Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal

Whether or not you align with the political stance of Chomsky, this is a book on climate well worth a read. Unlike many other break-it-down-build-it-back new deal books out there this one is grounded in actionable insights, policies, and data.

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Clearing The Air
Clearing The Air

Clearing The Air sets out the science of air pollution in clear terms and provides a good balance of statistics and storytelling which both inform and engage the reader.

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How To Avoid Climate Disaster
How To Avoid Climate Disaster

“How To Avoid Climate Disaster” is an accessible, conversational, and logical breakdown of the complexities in reaching zero carbon emissions. The book focuses on ‘green premiums’, innovation, and solutions mostly required to overcome the 20% of hard-to-abate emissions in the economy. Take a read, but just remember we already have the technology and favourable economics for the other 80% of the transition.

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Beyond Global Warming
Beyond Global Warming

The book provides great insight into the early developments of climate science as far back as the 19th century, an in-depth take on modern computer-based climate modelling since the 1970’s, and the cutting edge of Earth science and simulation.

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Sustainable Investing
Sustainable Investing

Sustainable Investing is a collection of essays from over 30 expert contributors spanning high-level practitioners and academic thought leaders. The book is aimed at investors, business leaders, and academics who want to explore how sustainable investing is changing global markets, the limitations within the current system, and how to expedite change.

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Economic impacts of tipping points in the climate system
Economic impacts of tipping points in the climate system

This paper tells us that by including the physical-economic tipping point damages into assessment models that the costs of climate change could increase by 25% and maybe even 100% or more.

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Merchants of Doubt
Merchants of Doubt

In their book Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway meticulously piece together threads of historical evidence to show “how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming”.

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Designing Climate Solutions
Designing Climate Solutions

A book on climate policy which is extremely clear, pragmatic, and well rounded, with case studies used to great effect in illustrating each argument. The book makes light work of complex climate wonkery, and is well worth adding to your reading list.

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Our World in Data
Our World in Data

Our World in Data is a tremendously useful online resource which collects, collates, and presents data on all the World’s greatest challenges including poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality.

Read More →
Contours of The World Economy
Contours of The World Economy

‘The Contours of the World Economy’ presents an overview of the last 2,000 years of human history through the lens of population and incomes.

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The Human Planet
The Human Planet

The deep geological past, the rise of humanity, and how we came to dominate planet Earth. ‘The Human Planet’ argues that humans have become a geological superpower, irreversibly altering the evolution of life and the geology of our planet through agriculture, industry, and climate change.

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There Is No Planet B
There Is No Planet B

‘There Is no Planet B’ is part book, part compendium of all the questions you can think of surrounding sustainability and carbon emissions with respect to food, travel, energy, and our daily lives.

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Introduction to Modern Climate Change
Introduction to Modern Climate Change

This is one of the best books I have read on the science of climate change. It is clearly written, contains simple explanations, and does a fantastic job of helping the reader understand the basic physics underlying the greenhouse effect.

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Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air
Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air

MacKay delves into the fundamental engineering, thermodynamics, and physical limits of net-zero options to build a sustainable energy future.

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Super-Forecasting
Super-Forecasting

Not a climate change book but an important read for anyone interested in how to objectively evaluate information and make more accurate predictions about the future.

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The Bet
The Bet

The book profiles the lives of ‘celebrity biologist’ Paul Ehrlich and ‘iconoclast economist’ Julian Simon. Two men who rose to prominence in the 1970s with two immoveable and diametrically opposed visions of the world. Their loathing for one another culminated in a decade long bet over the future of the planet.

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The Climate Casino
The Climate Casino

Climate Casino is an accessible introduction on integrated modelling and, regardless of your viewpoint, offers a clear understanding of how traditional economics deals with climate change.

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The Economics of Climate Change
The Economics of Climate Change

A report commissioned by the UK government and led by economist Lord Nicholas Stern, published in 2007, ‘The Stern Review’ was a landmark report that used the same cost-benefit (IAM) analysis framework developed by William Nordhaus, but concluded that immediate and decisive action on climate change is the best economic pathway.

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Pricing the Planet’s Future
Pricing the Planet’s Future

This is an extremely detailed and comprehensive book on estimating the discount rate required to bring future climate damages into the equivalent of today’s money or evaluating investment decisions.

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Mathew Hampshire-Waugh
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Designing Climate Solutions
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Contours of The World Economy