Hannah Ritchie Profile picture
Jan 25, 2022 9 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Estimates suggest that around 1-in-3 children globally suffer from lead poisoning.

It's a problem that:
– is widespread
– largely invisible & overlooked
– we spend little $$ on
– have large gaps in understanding

Our new @OurWorldInData project 🧵👇

ourworldindata.org/reducing-lead-…
@OurWorldInData Lead is a toxic pollutant. Exposure affects the nervous system, and is linked to delays in brain development & cognitive function.

It's particularly bad for young children.

The IHME estimates that lead pollution is responsible for around 1% of the global disease burden.

1/
The biggest source of lead used to be from gasoline.

The world has now phased out leaded petrol. A great achievement.

Algeria became the last country to do so, last year.

2/

ourworldindata.org/leaded-gasolin…
This led to massive reductions in lead exposure across many countries.

In the US, estimates suggest median blood levels in children have fallen by 95%.

3/

ourworldindata.org/decline-lead-p…
But, large numbers of children are still exposed to high levels of lead in many countries.

Where does this lead come from?

Some sources are easier to identify and tackle than others.

4/
Many countries have regulatory limits on the use of lead in paints. But many do not. Lead concentrations in paints are very high as a result.

@LeadElimination is one non-profit that is focused on tackling this problem: leadelimination.org

5/
But there are other sources that we know much less about: batteries, electronic waste, even food spices.

This is a big unknown that needs more research on how large these sources are, and how easy they might be to tackle.

6/
Last year the charity evaluator @GiveWell gave its first grant to a lead project.

It stressed that:
– we spend little on this problem
– could be very cost-effective to tackle
– but large uncertainty about the sources of lead & how we tackle them

givewell.org/research/incub…
@GiveWell In our @OurWorldInData work on Lead Pollution we want to make the latest data on this global problem available & accessible.

I have published this here: ourworldindata.org/lead-pollution

/end

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More from @_HannahRitchie

Sep 14, 2023
I've heard several people say that renewables are not driving an "energy transition". It's really just an "energy addition".

This makes it sound like fossil fuels have been business-as-usual, and we've stuck renewables on top.

I think there is a better way of framing this...🧵
In rich countries it really is an "energy transition".

Renewables are replacing fossil fuels in the electricity grid.

And as EVs replace petrol, and heat pumps replace gas (which are in early stages), the broader energy mix will transition too.

1/ Image
In low & middle income countries, energy consumption is growing strongly, so all of the lines are going up.

However, I think "energy addition" is the wrong phrase here. It's more like "fossil energy displacement".

Growth in fossil fuels would be ⬆️⬆️ without renewables.

2/ Image
Read 5 tweets
Jun 4, 2023
Terrible of the @guardian to publish this ill-informed, out-dated article on EVs.

Why does it build so much of its coverage around the climate crisis, then continually publish nonsense articles that undermine real solutions to address it?

theguardian.com/commentisfree/… Image
@guardian Most of the claims in the article are wrong.

You only have to look at the first, on the CO2 emissions of EVs vs. petrol/diesel cars.

Yes, emissions are higher during the production of an EV but this very quickly pays off when you start driving it.

... Image
@guardian Many have covered this in detail:

carbonbrief.org/factcheck-how-…

sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/ev-fossil-ca…

iea.org/data-and-stati…

Over its life course, the emissions of EVs are lower (how much lower depends on the electricity mix). As the world decarbonises, this will get even better.

...
Read 5 tweets
Mar 29, 2023
What impact have national greenhouse gas emissions had on global warming?

A new paper by @Jones_MattW & team at @gcarbonproject quantifies each country's contribution to global mean surface temperature rise.

I've added this data to @OurWorldInData. Here are some highlights 👇 Image
@Jones_MattW @gcarbonproject @OurWorldInData First, the team calculcates contributions to temperature rise using cumulative emissions of CO2, methane & nitrous oxide since 1850.

They convert this into carbon-dioxide equivalents using the GWP* method.

Includes emissions from fossil sources, agriculture & land use

1/
@Jones_MattW @gcarbonproject @OurWorldInData Here are 5 countries with the largest contributions to global temperature rise.

🇺🇸 USA: 0.28°C
🇨🇳 China: 0.2°C
🇷🇺 Russia: 0.1°C
🇧🇷 Brazil: 0.08°C
🇮🇳 India: 0.08°C

2/ Image
Read 12 tweets
Dec 22, 2022
It's easy to be skeptical that countries are taking little action on climate change.

This isn't true.

Looking at the shift in our trajectory in just a few years tells a different story.

I looked back at the past 6 years of @climateactiontr projections 👇
@climateactiontr 2016.

Policies in place would have taken us to 3.3 to 3.8°C by 2100.

Country pledges to 2.5 to 2.7°C.

1/
@climateactiontr 2017.

National policies: 3.1 to 3.7°C

Country pledges: 2.6 to 3.2°C

2/
Read 11 tweets
Dec 20, 2022
🆕 @f_spooner and I have published a major new redesign of our work on Biodiversity on @OurWorldInData 🐘🦁

A day after the world sealed a new deal on how to limit biodiversity loss & reverse it.

Explore all our data and articles in one place: ourworldindata.org/biodiversity Image
@f_spooner @OurWorldInData This redesign includes a block of Key Insights on the topic 👇

1/ Image
@f_spooner @OurWorldInData A spot where you can find all of our research and writing 👇

2/ Image
Read 4 tweets
Dec 5, 2022
Eating locally is not an effective way to reduce the carbon footprint of your diet.

This is despite a recent paper in @NatureFoodJnl claiming that 'food miles' make up 20% of food emissions.

In my latest Substack post I explain why this is wrong: hannahritchie.substack.com/p/food-miles
@NatureFoodJnl Some of the key points:

The new paper by Li et al. (2021) claimed that 'food miles' were 3.5 to 7.5 times higher than previous studies.

This is only because they redefined 'food miles' (to include things that are definitely not food miles).

1/
@NatureFoodJnl Their own results do not even support 'eating local makes a big difference'

They modelled a scenario where all countries got *all* of their food domestically.

Food emissions were reduced by just 1.7%.

They actually showed the opposite: it was very ineffective...

2/
Read 5 tweets

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