Chatto & Windus snaps up 'radically hopeful' look at future of planet Earth by scientist Ritchie

Chatto & Windus has snapped up a “radically hopeful, data-driven view of humanity’s future on planet Earth” by  scientist Dr Hannah Ritchie in a pre-empt.  

Becky Hardie, deputy publishing director, bought world rights, all languages, to The First Generation from Toby Mundy at Aevitas Creative Management UK. It will be published in early 2024. 

The blurb reads: “It has become normal to tell kids that they’re going to die from climate change. If a heatwave doesn’t get them, then drought will. Or sea-level rise, famine or a supercharged hurricane. It’s not surprising that most young people today feel like their future is in grave peril.

“Hannah Ritchie takes this pain and anxiety seriously. Still only 28, she felt this same fear for many years. But as her brilliant, urgent first book shows, this fatalism is completely wrong. Far from being humanity’s last generation, today’s young people are on course to become the first generation in human history to actually achieve sustainability and leave the world in a better state than they found it.” Chatto dubbed it a “radically hopeful, data-driven view of humanity’s future on planet Earth”.

Hardie said: “This is exactly the hopeful shot in the arm we all need right now. Hannah Ritchie uses data to show that looking at long-term trends often tells the opposite story from today’s big headlines–and a much more positive one, too. Hannah is a beautifully clear communicator in words, who works with and thinks in numbers and is able to present her research in pictures–in graphs and charts and other graphics. This is a rare and magical combination and it will be a pleasure and privilege to bring her work and book to readers all over the world.” 

Ritchie said: “I’m thrilled to be working with Becky and her great team at Chatto & Windus on my debut book. I feel lucky to have found an editor that has the same vision for the book that I do: bringing hard facts to life through the narratives and charts that we need to understand the world. It often feels like our environmental challenges are insurmountable–for many years I felt a deep anxiety about where these trends would take us. But if we zoom out and look at the data, we can see the massive strides we have already made. In this book I want to show not only where we’ve come from, but lay out a vision of how we build a sustainable world for this generation and those that follow.”