Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Max Roser

Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 12d

💡New feature: hovering over links to charts shows a preview!

Look out for the little chart icon next to a link to know when you can see a preview.

Our colleague Ike Saunders had this idea just a couple days ago and he already built it and made it live on our site — thanks, Ike!

1 6 37

Reposted by Max Roser

Helge Thomas 🌻 @helgethomas.bsky.social · Aug 11

Imagine all cars were electric, and then one Volkswagen engineer comes up with another idea …

#EMobility

10 170 350

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · 20d

It is September 18.

Today, @hannahritchie.bsky.social's book is out!

www.penguin.co.uk/books/462676...

Clearing the Air

'We urgently need Hannah Ritchie' GUARDIAN 'Essential reading' RUTGER BREGMAN 'Read this book -- now' MARK LYNAS We can’t afford to delay climate action, but with all the shouting and disagreement i...

www.penguin.co.uk

4 17

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · 21d

"A refreshingly pragmatic and undoomy book."

The Guardian just published a great review of @hannahritchie.bsky.social's new book 'Clearing the Air'.

The book will be out in 2 days.

If you are unsure whether you want to read it, the review gives a good overview: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

Clearing the Air by Hannah Ritchie review – practical climate optimism

A data scientist rebuts 50 arguments against green technology with lively pragmatism and authority

www.theguardian.com

3 20 59

Reposted by Max Roser

Hannah Ritchie @hannahritchie.bsky.social · Aug 22

Our @ourworldindata.org we visualise weekly updates of wildfire data from the Global Wildfire Information System.

Spain was having a pretty low/average year until the past few weeks when it went roaring past previous years.

You can track this data here:
ourworldindata.org/wildfires

2 29 73

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Aug 28

My colleague @hannahritchie.bsky.social wrote a new book!

For an author, pre-orders make a huge difference — as they convince bookstores to stock it.

If you are interested in Hannah's writing, you can order it here: penguin.co.uk/books/462676...

Clearing the Air

'We urgently need Hannah Ritchie' GUARDIAN 'Essential reading' RUTGER BREGMAN 'Read this book -- now' MARK LYNAS We can’t afford to delay climate action, but with all the shouting and disagreement i...

penguin.co.uk

8 24

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Aug 22

The full text of the Data Insight is here: ourworldindata.org/data-insights

Data Insights

Bite-sized insights on how the world is changing, published every few days

ourworldindata.org

3 16

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Aug 22

At Our World in Data, we spend much of our time counting deaths.

But it’s just as important to know the number of lives saved — even though it is harder to estimate and involves much larger uncertainty.

My Data Insight today includes this chart of some estimates.

6 49 120

Reposted by Max Roser

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina @eortizospina.bsky.social · Aug 13

Duolingo came out fully embracing AI in April, and it’s hard not to read their latest revenue growth numbers alongside this new report on the state of formal language learning in the UK

1 2 7

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Aug 1

Most electricity in the Netherlands now comes from renewables.

This is today's @ourworldindata.org Data Insight from my colleague @simonvanteutem.bsky.social.

All our Data Insights are here: ourworldindata.org/data-insights

17 110 360

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Jul 26

Every third car in Norway is now an electric car.

7 36 150

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Jul 16

At least since the mid-20th century, England has left mass hunger behind. How was this possible? How did English farmers prove Malthus wrong?

My 'Data Insight' on @ourworldindata.org today is about rising yields and falling hunger.

→ ourworldindata.org/data-insights

4 8 50

Reposted by Max Roser

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Jul 13

No, it's not the case that only China is responsible for the large decline in extreme poverty over the past decades.

We wrote about it recently: ourworldindata.org/data-insights/was-the-global-decline-of-extreme-poverty-only-due-to-china

4 42 110

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Jul 13

No, it's not the case that only China is responsible for the large decline in extreme poverty over the past decades.

We wrote about it recently: ourworldindata.org/data-insights/was-the-global-decline-of-extreme-poverty-only-due-to-china

4 42 110

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Jul 12

My latest Data Insight is about extreme poverty in South East Africa.

In Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, extreme poverty is not declining.

5 11 50

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Jul 5

In 2014, half of Greece's electricity was generated by coal.

A decade later, that share has fallen to just 6%.

29 360 1.5K

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Jul 1

Two billion people don’t have safe drinking water.

I really like the article of my colleague @hannahritchie.bsky.social, in which she shows what this concretely means for these people, by relying on the portraits of families in Gapminder's Dollar Street project.

ourworldindata.org/what-no-safe...

Two billion people don’t have safe drinking water: what does this really mean for them?

For billions, it can mean hours spent collecting water. For almost a million, it means dying from disease.

ourworldindata.org

16 47

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Jun 30

If you are interested in our work at Our World in Data, you can subscribe to our newsletters — in recent months we made them much better.

Here is what we offer and how you can subsribe: ourworldindata.org/newsletters

Want to stay up to date on our work? Subscribe to our two newsletters

We send two regular newsletters so our readers can stay up to date on our work: data insights and a biweekly digest.

ourworldindata.org

10 25

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Jun 26

My chart on the history of three infectious diseases — smallpox, polio, and measles — before and after a vaccine was available.

3 70 170

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · May 16

For the first time ever, China's CO₂ emissions are falling due to clean energy growth, rather than reduced power demand.

2 51 210

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · May 15

A single dose cuts the chances of measles by about 95% — a second dose reduces the risk further.

How effective and safe are measles vaccines?

In her new article, my colleague @scientificdiscovery.dev summarized the findings of a Cochrane meta-analysis.

ourworldindata.org/measles-vacc...

3 37 110

Reposted by Max Roser

Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · Mar 30

I don't doubt that a lot of people are considering leaving, but perhaps someone could tell Nature how to write survey questions

A graphic entitled "so long, farewell". It reads: "Many of the 1608 respondents who answered the question below in a Nature survey said that the election of Donald Trump as president had affected their future plans." It then shows the question: "Are you a US researcher who is considering leaving the country following disruptions to science prompted by the Trump administration?"

An orange bar shows 75.3% respondents said yes. A blue bar shows 24.7% respondents said no.

7 17 150

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Mar 18

In 2004, it took the world a year to add one gigawatt of solar power — now it takes a day.

5 190 520

Reposted by Max Roser

Blavatnik School of Government @blavatnikschool.bsky.social · Feb 20

"Statistics allows us to tell everyone's story." 📊📖

💡 An insightful lecture yesterday afternoon from Prof @maxroser.bsky.social on why we need good data to make good policy.

4 22

Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · Feb 17

One thing I admired Americans for was they provided efficient and effective aid for people around the world.

I thought this made America great.

The PEPFAR program saved plausibly about 25 million lives and prevented at least 5.5 million babies from being born with HIV.

See: pepfarreport.org

5 70 200