Clearing the Air : A Hopeful Guide to Solving Climate Change in 50 Questions and Answers

A FINANCIAL TIMES & NEW STATESMAN BEST BOOK OF 2025

"A refreshingly pragmatic and undoomy book."
—The Guardian

Clear, simple answers to the most common and vexing questions about climate change that we can take action on right now.

We can’t afford to delay climate action, but with all the shouting and disagreement, it’s hard to know where to turn. In Clearing the Air, data scientist and bestselling author Hannah Ritchie answers 50 key climate questions once and for all, clearing the air so we can take action and fix things.

The first piece of good news is that Ritchie is here with answers and the steps we need to take right now. Using simple, clear data, she tackles questions such as: Is it too late? Won’t we run out of minerals? Aren’t we too polarized? The second piece of good news: The truth is far more hopeful than you might think.

We’re at a critical moment for our planet, and getting the facts straight is step one. But even more crucial is feeling hopeful about what we can do next. The third piece of good news? We already have many of the solutions we need to create a more sustainable planet for future generations.

Hannah Ritchie is Senior Researcher in the Program for Global Development at the University of Oxford. She is also Deputy Editor of Our World in Data and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Statistical Society. In 2022, she was named Scotland’s Youth Climate Champion. In 2024, she was selected by Prospect magazine as one of their “Top 25 Thinkers.” She is the author of Not the End of the World.