Biography:Hannah Ritchie

From HandWiki
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
Website{{{1}}}

Hannah Ritchie (born 1993 in Falkirk)[1][2] 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.

She has published two books, Not the End of the World in 2024 and Clearing the Air in 2025, both by Chatto & Windus.

Early life and education

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.[3]

She remained in Scotland for her PhD, researching malnutrition and global food systems. She created a scalable framework to understand food system pathways and identify losses, allocations, and conversions.[4] In particular, she looked to understand whether it was possible to feed a growing population without damaging the environment.[5] Ritchie is vegan.[6]

Research

Ritchie started her career as a lecturer in sustainability at the University of Edinburgh. She developed teaching programs focused on sustainability.[7] She left Edinburgh to start a research position at the University of Oxford, where she developed data visualisations to communicate information.[5]

Ritchie's early work considered food systems and how it was essential to adapt to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.[8] For example, she has argued that for most foods, the carbon footprint is barely impacted by transport.[9]

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.[10] During the COVID-19 pandemic, she built the Our World in Data COVID-19 information dashboard.[11] In 2023 she became Deputy Editor and Lead Researcher.[12]

In 2024, she was elected to Scotland’s Just Transition Commission, "an independent advisory body that provides scrutiny and advice on how to deliver a just transition to a low-carbon economy in Scotland".[13]

In 2024, Chatto & Windus published Ritchie's first book, Not the End of the World,[14] which explores her optimism for large-scale problem-solving and ending climate change.[15][16]

In 2025, Ritchie published a second book, titled Clearing the Air[17].

She also authors a newsletter titled "Sustainability by Numbers," with over 60,000 subscribers.[18]

Ritchie has appeared in several well-known podcasts to talk about her work including Bill Gates Unconfuse Me and Benjamin Yeoh's Ben Yeoh Chats [19]

Recognition

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.[20] In 2024, Ritchie was recognised for lifetime achievement with honorary fellowship of the Royal Statistical Society.[21]

Bibliography

Books

  • Not the End of the World, Chatto & Windus, 2024, ISBN 9781784745004.[22]
  • Clearing the Air, Chatto & Windus, 2025, ISBN 9781784745745.[23]

Select papers

  • "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)" [24]
  • "A global database of COVID-19 vaccination"[25]
  • "CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions"[26]
  • "World Population Growth"[27]
  • 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

  1. ↑ Fox, Kilian (2 January 2024). "Hannah Ritchie: ‘Doomsday predictions are a dream for climate deniers’". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/02/hannah-ritchie-not-the-end-of-the-world-interview. "Hannah Ritchie, 30, was born in Falkirk" 
  2. ↑ Meier, Friederike (29 March 2024). "Klima-Buch „Hoffnung für Verzweifelte: Kühler Blick auf heiße Zeiten". Frankfurter Rundschau. https://www.fr.de/politik/klima-buch-hoffnung-fuer-verzweifelte-wir-koennen-noch-etwas-tun-92921148.html. "Jahrgang 1993" 
  3. ↑ Hannah Ritchie's Entry at ORCID
  4. ↑ Ritchie, Hannah (29 November 2018). Global food systems : addressing malnutrition through sustainable system pathways (PhD thesis). University of Edinburgh. hdl:1842/33270. OCLC 1085199475. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.764079. open access
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Hannah Ritchie" (in en). The New York Times. May 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-hannah-ritchie.html. 
  6. ↑ "Hannah Ritchie" (in en). University of Edinburgh. https://www.ed.ac.uk/e4-dtp/people/dtp-alumni/hannah-ritchie. 
  7. ↑ "Hannah Ritchie". https://www.edx.org/bio/hannah-ritchie-0. 
  8. ↑ "Healing the planet with our food choices with Dr Hannah Ritchie" (in en-US). 16 March 2021. https://theproof.com/healing-the-planet-with-our-food-choices-with-dr-hannah-ritchie/. 
  9. ↑ Puckett, Susan (14 September 2022). "Eating seasonally and locally has many benefits. Is fighting the climate crisis one of them?" (in en). CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/14/health/seasonal-food-produce-lbg-wellness/index.html. 
  10. ↑ "Our Team". https://ourworldindata.org/team. 
  11. ↑ Vaughan, Adam (28 May 2021). "Hannah Ritchie interview: The woman giving covid-19 data to the world" (in en-US). New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2278673-hannah-ritchie-interview-the-woman-giving-covid-19-data-to-the-world/. 
  12. ↑ "Our Team". https://ourworldindata.org/team. 
  13. ↑ "Hannah Ritchie – Just Transition Commission". https://www.justtransition.scot/person/hannah-ritchie/. 
  14. ↑ Bayley, Sian (1 March 2022). "Chatto & Windus snaps up 'radically hopeful' look at future of planet Earth by scientist Ritchie" (in En). The Bookseller. https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/chatto--windus-snaps-up-radically-hopeful-look-at-future-of-planet-earth-by-scientist-ritchie. 
  15. ↑ Chivers, Tom (9 October 2022). "Everything you thought you knew about how to fix the climate is probably wrong" (in en). https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/climate-crisis-how-fix-everything-you-knew-wrong-1895515. 
  16. ↑ Ritchie, Hannah (1 November 2021). "Stop Telling Kids They'll Die From Climate Change" (in en-GB). https://www.wired.co.uk/article/climate-crisis-doom. 
  17. ↑ "Clearing the Air" (in En). Penguin Random House. 27 September 2025. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/462676/clearing-the-air-by-ritchie-hannah/9781784745745. 
  18. ↑ Ritchie, Hannah. "Sustainability by numbers | Hannah Ritchie | Substack" (in en). https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com. 
  19. ↑ https://open.spotify.com/episode/4QzY8ISTr306ninODTuM4j
  20. ↑ "Holyrood Green Giant Awards 2022". Holyrood Events. https://events.holyrood.com/event/holyrood-green-giant-awards-2022/. 
  21. ↑ "Honorary Fellowship". https://rss.org.uk/training-events/events/honours/honorary-fellowship/. 
  22. ↑ 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. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/453652/not-the-end-of-the-world-by-ritchie-hannah/9781784745004. 
  23. ↑ Ritchie, Hannah (2025). Clearing the Air: A Hopeful Guide to Solving Climate Change — in 50 Questions and Answers. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 9781784745745. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/462676/clearing-the-air-by-ritchie-hannah/9781784745745. 
  24. ↑  , Wikidata Q113387718
  25. ↑  , Wikidata Q107202624
  26. ↑ Ritchie, Hannah; Roser, Max; Rosado, Pablo (11 May 2020). "CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions". Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions. 
  27. ↑ Roser, Max; Ritchie, Hannah; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Rodés-Guirao, Lucas (9 May 2013). "World Population Growth". Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth. 



Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Biography:Hannah_Ritchie&oldid=4145628"