Share this page!

Maybe Scrolly?
Hannah Ritchie Profile picture
Twitter logo
14 Sep, 9 tweets, 3 min read
There's a new study out on young peoples' attitudes to climate change.

Survey on 16-25yo across 10 countries. 1,000 people in each country.

Since it's in the media quite a bit, but data not quick to find, I plotted some of the results 🧵👇
56% of surveyed young people said "humanity was doomed" due to climate change.

1/
75% of surveyed young people said the "future is frightening" due to climate change.

2/
83% of surveyed young people said "people have failed to care for the planet"

3/
55% of surveyed young people said they would "have less opportunity than their parents" due to climate change

4/
52% of surveyed young people said their "family security would be threatened" due to climate change.

5/
39% of surveyed young people said they were "hesitant to have children" due to climate change.

6/
This is the data from this study which is being covered in the media today: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
For what it's worth, I think we're doing young people a massive disservice by instilling the message that their future is doomed due to climate change.

Not only bad for their mental health, but I also don't think this pessimistic outlook is productive in moving forward.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Hannah Ritchie

Hannah Ritchie Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @_HannahRitchie

Hannah Ritchie Profile picture
6 Aug
A common claim is that smallholder farmers produce 80% of the world's food. UN FAO has repeated this.

This is not correct.

Smallholders produce around one-third of the world's food.

My latest @OurWorldInData article looks at the numbers: ourworldindata.org/smallholder-fo… Image
A key problem here is that people start using 'small farms' and 'family farms' interchangeably.

But these are different. Family farms can be any size: some are huge.

Unfortunately the use of these terms interchangeably creates a bit of a messy trail in the literature.

1/
Smallholder farms (less than 2 hectares) produce around one-third of the world's food.

Family farms (which has a very broad definition) produce around 80% of the world's food.

These are not the same. And policies focused on these groups will not be the same.

2/
Read 6 tweets
Hannah Ritchie Profile picture
12 Jul
Food is about more than calories: we need a wide range of nutrients, vitamins & minerals.

A healthy diet is more than 4 times the cost of a basic, calorie-sufficient one.

As a result, three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet.

My latest post: ourworldindata.org/diet-affordabi…
You can get calories in cheaply if you rely on staple foods like cereals & starchy roots.

Across the world, the cheapest calorie-sufficient diet costs about $1 per day.

Unfortunately hundreds of millions still go without.

1/
'Healthy' diets that meet nutritional guidelines are much more expensive because they contain a wide variety of foods.

Costs around 4x as much in most countries.

Three billion people cannot afford this even if they spend most of their income on food.

2/
Read 7 tweets
Hannah Ritchie Profile picture
1 May
Where does the plastic in the ocean come from?

A new study published in @ScienceAdvances updates our understanding.

My latest @OurWorldInData article looks at the global picture of plastic pollution: ourworldindata.org/ocean-plastics

Thread of key points 👇
Previous studies suggested a small number of big rivers accounted for most of ocean plastics.

But higher-resolution data suggests many more small rivers play a big role.

To cover 80% of plastic inputs you need to tackle > 1,000 rivers.

1/
Factors that matter a lot for a river's plastic inputs:
– waste management practices
– distance to coast
– cities nearby
– precipitation rates
– slope of terrain

Here are the top 10 rivers 👇
(most are small rivers in the Philippines)

2/
Read 10 tweets
Hannah Ritchie Profile picture
4 Mar
Half of world's ice- and desert-free land is used for agriculture. Most for meat & dairy.

Dietary changes could reduce this by as much as 75%.

But you don't have to go vegan: massive reductions by simply switching to chicken, eggs, fish.

Latest article: ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets
A point that comes up often: "grazing land is not suitable for growing crops".

True. Two-thirds of grazing land is not great for crops.

But that's okay: more plant-based diets tend to need *less* cropland, not more.

How can this be true? 👇

2/
It's because so much of our cropland is used to produce feed for animals.

Less than half of the world's cereals go directly to human food.

3/
Read 6 tweets
Hannah Ritchie Profile picture
14 Jan
"We only have 100 / 60 / 30 harvests left" often hits the headlines. It's a myth. No scientific basis to it.

In fact, soil erosion rates span five orders of magnitude. Some are eroding quickly, some very little, and others are actually thickening.

1/
ourworldindata.org/soil-lifespans
First global assessment of soil lifespans by @DanEvansol & colleagues shows:

→ lifespans cross five orders of magnitude
→ 16% had < 100 years
→ 50% had > 1000 years
→ One-third had > 5000 years
→ some soils are thickening

2/
So the "60 harvests left" claim is overblown. But it shouldn't detract from the fact that soil erosion *is* a problem.

Thankfully there are things we can do:
→ cover cropping
→ minimal or no-till
→ contour cultivation

These soils showed longer lifespans in the study.

3/
Read 5 tweets
Hannah Ritchie Profile picture
16 Oct 20
It's #WorldFoodDay

Much of our work at @OurWorldInData covers food & agriculture – it's central to many of the world's largest problems

Feeding everyone a nutritious diet in a sustainable way is one of our biggest challenges this century

Thread of some of our work on this 👇
No one in the world should go hungry.

Global hunger has declined massively over the long-term, but more than 1-in-10 (> 820M people) are undernourished.

This is unacceptable in a world where we produce more than enough for everyone.

Our work on hunger:
ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-und…
Despite rapid population growth over the last century, famines have become much more rare.

Today they are largely the result of sociopolitical instability, war and inequality vs. a lack of food on aggregate.

@JoeHasell and @MaxCRoser's work on Famines: ourworldindata.org/famines
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @_HannahRitchie has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @_HannahRitchie!

Read all threads by @_HannahRitchie

:(