What Hannah Ritchie thinks about optimism

@hannah-ritchie · 37 positions · On ppll ↗

Data scientist at Our World in Data and author of Not the End of the World. Writes Sustainability by Numbers, working through energy and climate questions with the numbers in front of her, and revises in public when they say something she did not expect.

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Only Hannah Ritchie on optimism. See everyone on optimism

1 dated position, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Hannah Ritchie has said — not written or endorsed by them.

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1. 13 Jan 2026

   Our readingPeople are optimistic about their own lives and pessimistic about the world, because they judge their life on everything and the world on the last few headlines.

   Their wordsWhen someone is asked to reflect on their own life, they draw on a wide range of experiences. When people are asked about “the world”, they recall a very small number of recent events (the availability bias).

   ↗Many people are individually optimistic but think the world is falling apartsustainabilitybynumbers.com 2nd of 4 in this piece