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Geothermal power could be\u00a0a\u00a0key\u00a0part of the UK\u2019s energy\u00a0mix in the future<\/p>\n
Jim West\/Alamy<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Clearing the Air<\/a> A few weeks ago, I was having dinner with some friends and the conversation meandered \u2013 as it will when there is a climate journalist, a campaigner and two civil servants seated at the table \u2013 onto the topic of renewable energy<\/a>.<\/p>\n As you may have already guessed, I was dining with some pretty clued-up individuals, well-versed in the dangers of climate change and the urgent need to switch to cleaner forms of power. But still, the question was posed to me: surely we will still need some gas in our power grids for back-up fuel? A country like the UK can\u2019t rely on just wind, solar<\/a> and batteries during the dull and dark winter months, can it?<\/p>\n It is moments like these when data scientist Hannah Ritchie\u2019s<\/a> new book, Clearing the Air: A hopeful guide to solving climate change in 50 questions and answers, excels. Thanks to my well-thumbed copy, I was able to take my friends on a whistle-stop tour of some of the storage options that could help power the grid when the wind doesn\u2019t blow and the sun doesn\u2019t shine. Pumped hydropower, geothermal<\/a> energy and hydrogen<\/a> could all play a role, I told them.<\/p>\n Ritchie\u2019s previous book, Not the End of the World<\/a>, was a crash course in how to solve the planet\u2019s environmental challenges. Clearing the Air strikes the same optimistic tone, but is more of a \u201chow to\u201d guide, providing data-led answers to any questions you may have about the road to net zero<\/a>.<\/p>\n The queries are organised by topic, ranging from fossil fuels and renewable energy to electric cars and home heating. Reading it, you can\u2019t help but feel this is Ritchie\u2019s response to the ongoing deluge of ill-informed \u2013 and often outright misleading \u2013 media reports and political pronouncements on the net-zero transition, the kind that tell people electric cars will run out of juice on the motorway, heat pumps don\u2019t work in cold weather and the world doesn\u2019t have enough spare land for solar power.<\/p>\n Clearing the Air pushes back on this disinformation<\/a> using the power of scientific research and quality data. For example, one of the questions Ritchie answers is about whether wind farms kill birds \u2013 a favourite attack line of US president Donald Trump. The answer is yes, wind turbines do kill some birds, but that number is dwarfed by the annual kill rate of cats, buildings, cars and pesticides.<\/p>\n
Hannah Ritchie, Chatto & Windus (UK); MIT Press (US, out 3 March 2026)<\/p>\n