Category Archives: Environment

In Deeper Water

In Deeper Water: The DeepWater Horizon Oil Spill
Depressing update of our original DeepWater Horizon image.

The oil spill is now on track to be the 3rd worst in history, depositing the equivalent of 22,000 cars worth of oil into the sea every day.

More info and our data in this online spreadsheet: http://www.bit.ly/InDeepWater


DESIGN: David McCandless
RESEARCH: David McCandless, James Key, Pearl Doughty-White
ADDITIONAL DESIGN: Joe Swainson
SOURCES: International Energy Association, CIA Factbook, International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited, Press Reports
DATA: Explore in this Google doc

Also posted in Data Journalism |
30 Comments

In Deep Water: Can we afford to spill any oil?

In Deep Water: Can We Afford To Spill Any Oil?

Data here: http://www.bit.ly/InDeepWater


DESIGN: David McCandless
RESEARCH: David McCandless, James Key
ADDITIONAL DESIGN: Matt Hancock
SOURCES: International Energy Association, CIA Factbook, International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited, Press Reports
DATA: Explore in this Google doc

Also posted in Data Journalism |
55 Comments

Planes or Volcano?

After three versions and much discussion, here’s the latest, corrected version of the answer.

Planes vs Volcano: Who's emitting the most CO2?
Data here: http://bit.ly/planevolcano


UPDATE 3 – 20th April – : More new info and some shame for us. According to leading geologists, Eyjafjallajoekull is emitting between “150,000 and 300,000″ tons of CO2 a day (source). Despite the attentions of the Icelandic vulcanologists and detailed research, our calculations were apparently off by a factor to 10. Many apologies for this error. The volcano *is* belching huge gobs of CO2 into the atmos. Arguably, still less than the amount that would’ve been emitted by the grounded planes. We’ve corrected the diagram. Thanks to all the commenters who helped us refine and correct our calcs.

UPDATE 2 – 18th April -: We’ve been sent some new figures from the Nordic Volcanological Institute of the University of Iceland (thanks Nicole!). They’ve measured the CO2:SO2 ratio as 5:1 (source). So Eyjafjallajoekull is emitting an estimated 15,000 tons of CO2 a day – twice our original estimate. We’ve updated the diagram accordingly.

UPDATE 1 – April 17th – : A few people have asked so here’s how we estimated the CO2 emissions of Eyjafjallajoekull.

We couldn’t find a direct CO2 emissions figure for the icelandic volcano but we did find an emissions figure for Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) – 3,000 tons a day (Source)

When Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991, it emitted 42 million tons of CO2 (source) and 17 million tons of SO2 (source). That’s a CO2-to-SO2 ratio of 2.47:1

Applying that ratio to the 3,000 tons of SO2 emitted by Eyjafjallajoekull gives us the figure of 7,412 tons of CO2 per day.

Clearly, this is a ballpark figure and it’s likely to be more complex. If any vulcanologists are passing by and would like to enhance or correct our numbers, please help yourselves to the data!



Posted in Environment |
145 Comments

Climate Change: A Consensus Among Scientists?

Off the back of the recent Climate Skeptics vs The Consensus image, we were curious how many scientists might make up ‘The Consensus’.

The Skeptical side claims at least 31,486 dissenters in their ranks, according to the PetitionProject.org. That sounds like a lot. But is it?

Climate Change: A Consensus Among Scientists?
Of course, not all 12 million US scientists therefore agree with ‘The Consensus’. But this puts the PetitionProject’s 31,486 signatories in some kind of context.

Read More »

Also posted in Climate, Data Visualisation, De-Hyping, Graph, Infographic, Skeptics vs Believers |
143 Comments

The Climate Deniers vs The Consensus

Climate Skeptics vs Climate Consensus

A visual map of the arguments for and against human-caused global climate change.

I’m fascinated by climate deniers. How could anyone deny the climate change is happening?
What evidence is there? Surely it’s unambiguous?

Curious, I investigated the key statements made by climate denialists and sought out the counter-views, as presented by climate research scientists. The result is this image.

(This a new and updated version of the spread on Climate Skepticism from my book The Visual Miscellaneum)

Method

I researched this subject in a very particular way. I deliberately chose not speak directly to any climate experts or leading scientists in the field. I used only publicly available web sources.

Why? Because I wanted to simulate what it’s like for people trying to learn about climate change online.

My conclusion is “what a nightmare”. I was generally shocked and appalled by how difficult it was to source counter arguments. The data was often tucked away on extremely ancient or byzantine websites. The key counter arguments I often found, 16 scrolls down, on comment 342 on a far flung realclimate.org post from three years ago. And even when I found an answer, the answers were excessively jargonized or technical.

Most of the info for this image is sourced from Realclimate.org. It’s an amazing blog staffed tirelessly by some of the world’s leading climatologists.

Unfortunately, the majority of the writing on there is so scientific and so technical, it makes the website nigh on useless to the casual, curious reader.

This has got to be one of the reasons why scientists and leaders are struggling to convince sections of the populace that the threat of climate change is real. Because they’re doing such a terrible job explaining it.

(Saying all that, I would like to express my gratitude to Gavin A Schmidt, one of unsung heroes of the web IMHO. His sterling and patient replies to comments, on RealClimate.org in understandable English, have really helped this process.)

Runaway Feedback

This image was a mammoth undertaking, especially for someone like me, unschooled in climate science. So I appreciate your understanding if any errors have crept into the process. If you spot any, please get in touch and I’ll will correct them on the double.

In every case, wherever possible, I went back the original data. (I’ve included a ZIP of all the data I’ve collected plus a spreadsheet of all the sources). And all the graphs in the image are generated from the original temperature records and other data sources. Feel free to rifle through and check everything.

RealClimate.org are (now) keeping an archive of all the data – if you want even more!
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/data-sources/

UPDATE 1 (12th Dec 09): There have been a few complaints about the legibility of the image. So I’ve created a version on white instead of black.


Also posted in Climate, Comparison Chart, Data Visualisation, Political, Skeptics vs Believers, The Visual Miscellaneum, Visual Journalism, X vs Y |
237 Comments

2012: The End Of The World?

2012: The End Of The World? by David McCandless, InformationIsBeautiful.net

A piece exploring the myths around 2012, Mayan Prophecy, geomagnetic reversal, The Long Count, consciousness shifts, Hunab Ku, galactica alignment, the Precession Of The Equinoxes, rogue planet Nibiru, solar storms, pole shifts, timewave zero, the return of Quetzalcoatl and THE END OF THE WORLD December 21st 2012!

Make up your own mind

UPDATE 1 (8 Dec 09): There’s now a Portuguese version of 2012 (thanks Ricardo Vieira) and a French version DEUUUUXMIIIILLEDOUUUUZE (thanks to Olivier!)



Also posted in De-Hyping, Esoteria, Group MInd, Information Design, Media, Movies, Skeptics vs Believers, sci-fi |
109 Comments

Four Infographic Morsels 2

The Change In Carbon Emissions
Another beautiful viz from Good Magazine. This time by Spanish viz supremo Lamosca. Twinned with Kyoto Targets.

Carbon Emissions

Your pet’s CO2 pawprint
How much CO2 is that doggy in the window? [Via Good Magazine and NewScientist]

Your pet's CO2 pawprint

White fight or flight?
Here’s a little something I did, overlaying membership data from the racist British National Party and ethnic populations in the UK. See the full size image.

Racist Profiling: BNP membership vs Ethnic Populations

300 days of Swine Flu
Nice image from Michael Paulkner showing the death toll from Swine Flu after 300 days. Larger sizes here.

Blimey. Quite a lot of doom and gloom in those images. I’ll try to make the next one cheerier.

If you’re still hungry for more infographical morsels, check out the last selection.

In the meantime, if you come across any visual delights, please send them through.

Also posted in Climate, Data Journalism, Data Visualisation, Health |
6 Comments

Kyoto: Who’s On Target?

There’s a lot of talk of a new world climate agreement in Copenhagen in December to succeed Kyoto. I wondered how the signatories of the first one were doing. Make up your own mind.

Kyoto: Who's On Target?

As ever, this was difficult to research. A lot of the important data was locked in a huge European Environment Agency report. And then summarised by a byzantine graph. In the end I had to trawl through individual country reports to get the figures I needed.

It was also tricky to visualise. I chose quite a designery approach which demands that you dig into the image a bit to get the understanding flowing. I hope the result isn’t too byzantine either.

The design took several versions to get right. If you’re interested, you can see some drafts here (or as a PDF).

Also posted in Climate, Data Visualisation, Infographic, News |
58 Comments

Surface Area Required To Solar Power The World

Surface area required to solar power the world

According to the United Nations 170,000 square kilometers of forest is destroyed each year. If we constructed solar farms at the same rate, we would be finished in 3 years.

New: I did a little revisioning, adding another power source we possibly haven’t considered.

From LandArtGenerator.org. Image here. Science here.

[Via Cool Infographics]

Also posted in Political, Sustainability, World Map |
50 Comments

Great Visualizers: Good Magazine

Good Magazine Infographics
Good Magazine is good. It’s a non-profit mag with a powerful eco-sustainability-we-can-do-this-together vibe. And when you subscribe, they give your money to charity!

They’ve been quietly championing infographics and visual information in their ‘Transparency’ section for a few years now. Many of their images are America-centric. But a lot highlight global concerns. Here are some of my favourites.

Read More »

Also posted in Data Visualisation, Great Visualizers, Infographic, Media, Sustainability, Visual Journalism |
11 Comments