Hannah Ritchie has won the 2026 Unwin Award!

Hannah, our Deputy Editor and Science Outreach Lead, published her second book, Clearing the Air, last year in hardback.

The paperback version will soon come out in the UK — on 3rd September.

Hannah wrote about the renewed relevance of her book in a recent Substack post:

The recent record-breaking heatwaves in the UK (and other parts of the world) have, at least temporarily, put climate change back on the agenda. But as I’ve said many times before, the debate is no longer about whether climate change is happening, or if we should do something about it.

Most of the concern is about: Who should take action? How much will it cost? Do we have enough land for solar and wind? Won’t we run out of minerals, or create even more of a mining mess? What do we do about cement, or concrete, or aviation?

These are the types of questions — there are 50 of them! — that I cover in this book.

If you’d like to pre-order a copy of Clearing the Air in paperback, it makes a big difference because it convinces bookstores to stock it.

How can we learn about temperatures and climate change from before thermometers even existed?

One remarkable window into this is the peak bloom date of cherry trees in Kyoto, Japan, a record stretching back over 1,200 years. Because the trees bloom earlier in warmer springs, those dates act as a proxy for how the climate has changed. The “heat island” effect of urbanization has also played a role.

For decades, the record was kept by Professor Yasuyuki Aono of Osaka Metropolitan University, who meticulously reconstructed the dates by reading centuries of diaries and chronicles from Kyoto. You can see this data in the chart here.

Earlier this year, when our data scientist Tuna Acisu went to update our chart with the latest bloom date, she learned that Professor Aono had sadly passed away — and that no one was set to continue his work.

After several leads went nowhere, Tuna made one last appeal to our audience on social media (see her posts on X/Twitter and Bluesky). We were looking for someone with botanical expertise who could identify the peak bloom from photos, or a local in Kyoto with access to bloom-specific reporting.

The response was overwhelming, with over a thousand comments and shares from people trying to help. Soon after, a successor stepped forward: Dr. Genki Katata, a researcher in Japan, who will carry the dataset forward!

Tuna’s appeal caught the attention of major media, with The New York Times and The Guardian interviewing her about her role in the story.

The success of Tuna’s quest to continue this important dataset is a great example of what we can achieve collectively. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen!

Our chart on CO₂ emissions per capita — relying on data from the Global Carbon Project — was part of the national baccalauréat exam in France this week!

Tens of thousands of high school students had to analyze and discuss the data to write about the United States and environmental issues.

This is just one example of how our work is used in teaching and learning around the world.

We hope the exam went well for everyone!

Maybe our work helped you understand a global issue, explain something clearly to someone else, think differently about a problem, or make a decision. In your work, studies, or anywhere else in your life.

Thank you! This really helps us understand how our work is being useful for others.

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We also share interesting things our team has been reading.

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