Gracias Hannah! Agree w/your broad definition + both applaud and thank you for offering your thoughtful insights freely! Wishing you a very happy holiday and all the best for 2026!
Thank you very much, Hannah, for your fantastic work! I think you are doing a great service to the sustainability movement by making this change! So I am already looking forward to see a broader mix of topics and maybe get a different perspective on some other topic as I may not have thought about the impact of making a certain change on some group in society or another aspect of the problem.
Have a great time over the holidays, Hannah and followers of this substack!
Thank you, Hannah, for all the interesting and enlightening articles this year. I am very much looking forward to you branching out towards new topics, since I believe that your data-led lense can shed light on important developments in fields of all kind. This is the kind of content I love to subscribe for. Bonus kudos for your decision to keep the Substack free, even though you could clearly find paying subscribers.
Thank you Hannah. This is definitely the right evolution to make. As you rightly point out sustainability is much broader than environmental issues, important though these are. Here at Wylde Connections we spend a lot of our time with clients helping them to understand this. The messaging from government and in the media hasn't helped with its "carbon tunnel vision" and this has been a great disservice to businesses, especially those that genuinely want to have positive impacts across all aspects of sustainability instead of just being less bad. I welcome the changes you are making and I hope all your subscribers see the value in you broadening the subject material. It's definitely what's needed right now. You are one of the credible sources of information and I regularly point clients in your direction because of this.
I look forward to reading your articles this coming year. And thank you for all the great work you do.
Great call Hannah; ultimately we need to solve the Whole Ball of Wax wicked problem, in which everything is inextricably linked to everything else. Thank you for your service!
As a long time Green Party of Canada supporter, and sometimes candidate, I've often had people say “but you are a one issue party” (meaning environment).
My response is to explain that, yes, that's true but the issue is sustainability. In climate and environment, in social justice, inequity and poverty, in democracy, in good journalism, in education and healthcare.
I was really tickled to see you explain a similar vibe today. I think we need to be repeating this everywhere and often; wealth inequity, concentration of media power, extractivism - none of it is sustainable.
Obviously, what you do with your substack is totally up to you but I love the “sustainability” name.
Great! I occasionally find myself in debates with ‘green scam’ types over whether the two main human forces of the past two thousand years, market forces and state forces, are natural forces. They are not even though both have profound consequences for nature. The climate change and lost bio diversity and the rolling loss of forests cut down for charcoal about which you have kept us informed so clearly. And the profound health consequences. More children’s lives lost due to charcoal fumes than any disease or malnutrition. As we know only too well, extracting and selling oil and gas remains highly profitable for BP and the big 4. Gazprom and Aramco continue to fund the Russian and Saudi Arabian states. The FDLR still produces charcoal in the forests of the Virunga park, and it’s still sold in the markets of Goma under the watchful eyes of their enemies the M23. Markets and states supply our demands. They are our two most powerful creations. They make use of but they are not driven fundamentally by another of our greatest creations - science. Our world in data. The great challenge we face is how to make markets and states responsive to the environmental imperatives observed data reveals when their main drivers are not. I feel your need to branch out. It is brilliant that battery and PV costs have crashed, that copper is plentiful enough to build grids and we have the tech for the energy, transport and farming transitions. But the profit that drives the extraction of minerals and the movement of people and stuff around the world and the power that comes from winning votes or controlling a security apparatus remain stubbornly detached from carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. Data does not move that dial. So I commend your decision.
Sorry to disagree with you Thomas , especially now in "The Season Of Goodwill toward men" but......you say "Markets and states supply our demands. They make use of but they are not driven fundamentally by another of our greatest creations - science. "
Well.......firstly , science is an invention [ a concept , an analytical system , a methodology ,
an attempt to understand the world using empirical evidence ] not a creation and
secondly , States and Markets may well be creations , but States make demands of us , they don't meet our demands at all ! And Markets may well function for our benefit and meet our needs and our wants , but they basically exist to create "stuff" for consumption and "profit" for investors........but since they produce almost everything else , we shouldn't complain ! But , I opine that BOTH are fundamentally driven by 'science'........it's the combination of the concepts of a chain of brilliant minds , persistence , endurance , luck and serendipity that have gotten us successfully as far as we have today ! Science produces the concepts and Markets provide the money to allow it to produce the goods !
The States simply create the environment for this to happen.......and then take "the credit" and their "cut" !
And thirdly , "Our world in data."
No it's not ! It's quantum fields !!! David Tong will bear me out on that !
Thank you for engaging even at Christmas! I said science is a creation just to keep the same word in play I used for markets and states. You say science is an invention. I don’t think we’re too far apart there in thinking it has been we who came up with the methodology, whether better described as an invention or creation. My point was not to make any judgment about the relative merits of markets or states in delivering public or private goods, nor of market or state failure to do so. Nor was I saying market and state agents don’t make use of and fund scientific research. All I was saying was that the fundamental driving forces of markets and states are not their natural consequence. The market in fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal and wood) and in agricultural land is not driven by the associated ‘externalities’ - human caused climate change, respiratory disease from using charcoal for cooking or biodiversity loss. I still hope we can work together to make both more responsive whether with market responses in renewables or state ones in taxing externalities like carbon emissions. And Happy Christmas!
Hi Thomas ! I don't think that we are too far apart in our aims and ambitions for a better world than the one we inherited ! We have certainly improved it in almost any category you can mention with the evident exception of education which has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous , from individuality and pure science and explanations of existence and reality BACK into superstition and indoctrination where even the point of existence has been reduced to power and
petty 'tribalism' ! Hopefully this latest group of youngsters will prevail and get it moving forward again [ true progressives ! ] and re-establish universities as "Centres of Higher Learning" , free speech and open debate and the exchange of ideas and ideals , as they once were !
It would be lovely to welcome back highly competent , confident , keen and eager graduates willing and able to tackle whatever they encounter instead of the current output of highly indoctrinated , cringeworthy activist types , seething with resentment and riddled with doubts , fear , depression and mental-illness and the conviction that the world will end , badly , at 2.00 o'clock tomorrow , because the previous generations haven't provided them with enough "stuff" .....and housing !
And , to make it worse , the current , equally incompetent government , is considering REDUCING the voting age to include this lower-standard of inept people into the ranks of "responsible voters " !!! Ye Gods ! I hope not !!!
Roll-on 2026 and perhaps 'lady-luck' will again endow us with her serendipitous
touch and bring about the improvements we crave and so badly need !
Wishing a Merry Christmas AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU and yours Thomas !
Thanks for your work. Our world in data is one of my most visited and referenced websites
I’ll be interested to see more data and analysis of global health, and particularly if and how signs of progress vs decline in health outcomes emerge (as a result of changes to environmental / social determinants of health / rising inequality) - I am fairly convinced we will see accelerating reversal in longevity and other health metrics as a consequence of these
Et tu, Hannah? All references to "sustainability" or climate change are being furiously scrubbed from all US government and red state documents, as well as from Tesla's (Tesla!) mission statement. Has the fossil fuel-crazed oligarchic class's retreat from caring about the state of the physical environment now infected usually reliable Substackers too?
I've said it before and I'll say it again: There is no more important writer out there than you, Hannah. The Doomers are suffering so unnecessarily, and causing so much unnecessarily. Thank you for using data and facts to push a realistic understanding of the world. That's the only way we can really make progress.
Brilliant idea, look forward to the year ahead, US health policies and the potential to adversely affect us all would be a great start, we all need to be aware of what they’re doing - many thanks for all you do
Thanks, Hannah -- I appreciate your work. If you'd ever like to collaborate on anything sustainability related, please be in touch.
I'm experimenting with "SustainLab" here on Substack and currently teaching a journalism/scicomm course called "Covering Sustainability" as part of the new science communication master's program at Ansbach University.
Thank you for your work! I suspect you won't lose many subscribers, if any, people want to read about the topics you find interesting/important!
Gracias Hannah! Agree w/your broad definition + both applaud and thank you for offering your thoughtful insights freely! Wishing you a very happy holiday and all the best for 2026!
Thank you very much, Hannah, for your fantastic work! I think you are doing a great service to the sustainability movement by making this change! So I am already looking forward to see a broader mix of topics and maybe get a different perspective on some other topic as I may not have thought about the impact of making a certain change on some group in society or another aspect of the problem.
Have a great time over the holidays, Hannah and followers of this substack!
Thank you, Hannah, for all the interesting and enlightening articles this year. I am very much looking forward to you branching out towards new topics, since I believe that your data-led lense can shed light on important developments in fields of all kind. This is the kind of content I love to subscribe for. Bonus kudos for your decision to keep the Substack free, even though you could clearly find paying subscribers.
Thank you Hannah. This is definitely the right evolution to make. As you rightly point out sustainability is much broader than environmental issues, important though these are. Here at Wylde Connections we spend a lot of our time with clients helping them to understand this. The messaging from government and in the media hasn't helped with its "carbon tunnel vision" and this has been a great disservice to businesses, especially those that genuinely want to have positive impacts across all aspects of sustainability instead of just being less bad. I welcome the changes you are making and I hope all your subscribers see the value in you broadening the subject material. It's definitely what's needed right now. You are one of the credible sources of information and I regularly point clients in your direction because of this.
I look forward to reading your articles this coming year. And thank you for all the great work you do.
Great call Hannah; ultimately we need to solve the Whole Ball of Wax wicked problem, in which everything is inextricably linked to everything else. Thank you for your service!
Thank you for all you do. Your book was great. Informative and thought provoking.
Very excited for the new topics. Can't really imagine it making a real dent in your subscriber curve.
As a long time Green Party of Canada supporter, and sometimes candidate, I've often had people say “but you are a one issue party” (meaning environment).
My response is to explain that, yes, that's true but the issue is sustainability. In climate and environment, in social justice, inequity and poverty, in democracy, in good journalism, in education and healthcare.
I was really tickled to see you explain a similar vibe today. I think we need to be repeating this everywhere and often; wealth inequity, concentration of media power, extractivism - none of it is sustainable.
Obviously, what you do with your substack is totally up to you but I love the “sustainability” name.
Thanks for all you do!
Totally agree with your take Blair. We live in systems and they all interconnect and have influence on each other.'Sustainability' is a broad topic.
Great! I occasionally find myself in debates with ‘green scam’ types over whether the two main human forces of the past two thousand years, market forces and state forces, are natural forces. They are not even though both have profound consequences for nature. The climate change and lost bio diversity and the rolling loss of forests cut down for charcoal about which you have kept us informed so clearly. And the profound health consequences. More children’s lives lost due to charcoal fumes than any disease or malnutrition. As we know only too well, extracting and selling oil and gas remains highly profitable for BP and the big 4. Gazprom and Aramco continue to fund the Russian and Saudi Arabian states. The FDLR still produces charcoal in the forests of the Virunga park, and it’s still sold in the markets of Goma under the watchful eyes of their enemies the M23. Markets and states supply our demands. They are our two most powerful creations. They make use of but they are not driven fundamentally by another of our greatest creations - science. Our world in data. The great challenge we face is how to make markets and states responsive to the environmental imperatives observed data reveals when their main drivers are not. I feel your need to branch out. It is brilliant that battery and PV costs have crashed, that copper is plentiful enough to build grids and we have the tech for the energy, transport and farming transitions. But the profit that drives the extraction of minerals and the movement of people and stuff around the world and the power that comes from winning votes or controlling a security apparatus remain stubbornly detached from carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. Data does not move that dial. So I commend your decision.
Sorry to disagree with you Thomas , especially now in "The Season Of Goodwill toward men" but......you say "Markets and states supply our demands. They make use of but they are not driven fundamentally by another of our greatest creations - science. "
Well.......firstly , science is an invention [ a concept , an analytical system , a methodology ,
an attempt to understand the world using empirical evidence ] not a creation and
secondly , States and Markets may well be creations , but States make demands of us , they don't meet our demands at all ! And Markets may well function for our benefit and meet our needs and our wants , but they basically exist to create "stuff" for consumption and "profit" for investors........but since they produce almost everything else , we shouldn't complain ! But , I opine that BOTH are fundamentally driven by 'science'........it's the combination of the concepts of a chain of brilliant minds , persistence , endurance , luck and serendipity that have gotten us successfully as far as we have today ! Science produces the concepts and Markets provide the money to allow it to produce the goods !
The States simply create the environment for this to happen.......and then take "the credit" and their "cut" !
And thirdly , "Our world in data."
No it's not ! It's quantum fields !!! David Tong will bear me out on that !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdmQoXFXscc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNVQfWC_evg
.
Anyway.....MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR to you too !
Thank you for engaging even at Christmas! I said science is a creation just to keep the same word in play I used for markets and states. You say science is an invention. I don’t think we’re too far apart there in thinking it has been we who came up with the methodology, whether better described as an invention or creation. My point was not to make any judgment about the relative merits of markets or states in delivering public or private goods, nor of market or state failure to do so. Nor was I saying market and state agents don’t make use of and fund scientific research. All I was saying was that the fundamental driving forces of markets and states are not their natural consequence. The market in fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal and wood) and in agricultural land is not driven by the associated ‘externalities’ - human caused climate change, respiratory disease from using charcoal for cooking or biodiversity loss. I still hope we can work together to make both more responsive whether with market responses in renewables or state ones in taxing externalities like carbon emissions. And Happy Christmas!
Hi Thomas ! I don't think that we are too far apart in our aims and ambitions for a better world than the one we inherited ! We have certainly improved it in almost any category you can mention with the evident exception of education which has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous , from individuality and pure science and explanations of existence and reality BACK into superstition and indoctrination where even the point of existence has been reduced to power and
petty 'tribalism' ! Hopefully this latest group of youngsters will prevail and get it moving forward again [ true progressives ! ] and re-establish universities as "Centres of Higher Learning" , free speech and open debate and the exchange of ideas and ideals , as they once were !
It would be lovely to welcome back highly competent , confident , keen and eager graduates willing and able to tackle whatever they encounter instead of the current output of highly indoctrinated , cringeworthy activist types , seething with resentment and riddled with doubts , fear , depression and mental-illness and the conviction that the world will end , badly , at 2.00 o'clock tomorrow , because the previous generations haven't provided them with enough "stuff" .....and housing !
And , to make it worse , the current , equally incompetent government , is considering REDUCING the voting age to include this lower-standard of inept people into the ranks of "responsible voters " !!! Ye Gods ! I hope not !!!
Roll-on 2026 and perhaps 'lady-luck' will again endow us with her serendipitous
touch and bring about the improvements we crave and so badly need !
Wishing a Merry Christmas AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU and yours Thomas !
Regards , Trevor.
I’m definitely staying. I really appreciate your work. Happy Christmas and good luck in the New Year.
Thanks for your work. Our world in data is one of my most visited and referenced websites
I’ll be interested to see more data and analysis of global health, and particularly if and how signs of progress vs decline in health outcomes emerge (as a result of changes to environmental / social determinants of health / rising inequality) - I am fairly convinced we will see accelerating reversal in longevity and other health metrics as a consequence of these
Et tu, Hannah? All references to "sustainability" or climate change are being furiously scrubbed from all US government and red state documents, as well as from Tesla's (Tesla!) mission statement. Has the fossil fuel-crazed oligarchic class's retreat from caring about the state of the physical environment now infected usually reliable Substackers too?
I've said it before and I'll say it again: There is no more important writer out there than you, Hannah. The Doomers are suffering so unnecessarily, and causing so much unnecessarily. Thank you for using data and facts to push a realistic understanding of the world. That's the only way we can really make progress.
Brilliant idea, look forward to the year ahead, US health policies and the potential to adversely affect us all would be a great start, we all need to be aware of what they’re doing - many thanks for all you do
Thanks, Hannah -- I appreciate your work. If you'd ever like to collaborate on anything sustainability related, please be in touch.
I'm experimenting with "SustainLab" here on Substack and currently teaching a journalism/scicomm course called "Covering Sustainability" as part of the new science communication master's program at Ansbach University.