Climate Colors

"How has the planet evolved throughout our lifetimes? Or more specifically, how does our current world compare to the world when we were born? Human existence may be short in the grand scheme of things, but our impact has accelerated the pace of global warming. Looking ahead, it's important to consider how our decisions today shape the future—not only for ourselves but also for future generations."

Climate Colors lets you compare your own experience of climate change to that of other born at different times.

A Projection Joke!

Amitav Ghosh

Came across this concept from Amitav Ghosh: He argues that 'our' existenial fears abour climate change are in-fact Western fears about the looming end of our colonial powers. In-contrast, in much of the rest of the world and especially for Indigenous people, the catastrophe has alredy happened.

The 2024 Submarine Cable Map

The Submarine Cable Map is one of the annual highlights in map making - not sure why that is - but somehow 'seeing' how the continents are connected via submarine cables makes you realize just how interconnected we are. I always wonder how much this network will need to expand once we let AI run much of our lives!

• The 2024 Submarine Cable Map (interactive story map)
• The 2024 Submarine Cable Map (global, static image)

Yep, seen them all...

 

easystats: An R Framework for Easy Statistical Modeling, Visualization, and Reporting

easystats: An R Framework for Easy Statistical Modeling, Visualization, and Reporting. Looks great, worth a try!

Should we be terrified of climate change?

Welll said Sabine!

Mapping Space & Time

This is great: Spacetime Map

Back in 1982...

 

AI, Images, & Stereotypes

This type of kind was entirely missing from GTC: How AI reduces the world to stereotypes

Concrete, Cement, CO2, Climate Change

 

How People Commute

Nor surprise here: everybody in the USA commutes by car, whereas things are much more diverse around the world. Great interactive map: Cities Moving. Start by setting your own commuting and then scroll-down for context.

Probable Futures

Probable Futures seems like a great initiative - but I am not really sure what they are doing and for how much longer. Their Climate Handbook is great - would be nice to have it as a PDF and as a full audiobook for easier reading and listening.

The Distressed Community Index

Nicely-Done! The Distressed Community Index has 15.6% percent of its population living in a distressed zip code and 24.4% percent living in a prosperous zip code. Start at the state level, then switch to counties, and perhas even zip codes.

Not cool: you need to pay them for the data!

PalmWatch

PalmWatch: Tracking the impact of big brands' palm oil use seems really cool & slick, but may take you a while to figure-out what's going on & how to use it.

The Culture War @ US Universities

Great article in Nature by Emma Marris: How Culture Wars are Affecting US Universities

This is just the usual right-wing BS that the MAGA crowd loves: elinminate DEI to protect academic freedom, frame diversity statements as a 'leftistt loyalty oath', etc. Not something we need to deal with in Massachusetts (yet...).

Lovejoy's Nuclear War (1975)

On George Washington's Birthday, 1974, Sam Lovejoy--a 27-year-old farmer--toppled a 500-foot weather tower in Montague, Massachusetts. The tower had been erected by the local utility as part of their attempt to build one of the largest nuclear power plants ever planned.

Leaving 349 feet of twisted wreckage behind, Lovejoy hitched a ride to the local police station, where he turned himself in along with a four-page statement decrying the dangers of nuclear power and accusing the government and utilities of "conspiracy and despotism."

Six months later, Lovejoy stood trial for "willful and malicious destruction of personal property," a five-year felony. He insisted on conducting his own case, and told the jury he had acted in self-defense. After a dramatic seven-day trial, Lovejoy went free.

More about this story here: https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/lovejoys-nuclear-plant-civil-disobedience/

Earth Transit - Major World Passenger Rails

Earth Transit - Major World Passenger Rails is awsome: just a giant map as JPG or PDF.

The McCheapest

Cool map (and spatial pattern): https://pantryandlarder.com/mccheapest. Even better: share the data set with us - that would be great for teaching!

Coldest day of the year across the United States

The Coldest day of the year across the United States shows a really interesting east-to-west pattern!

Ful-screen app here.

Octopus ==> Ice Sheet History ==> Climate

Very cool: Genetic insight on ice sheet history

Nothing fundamentally new, but a great new independent line of evidence that supports what Mercer already told us 50+ years ago: The West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed during the last Interglacial (~129,000 to ~116,000 years ago) and sea levels rose by 5 m.

GPX to 3D Storymap

This is pretty fun: Creating a 3D Race Report with ArcGIS StoryMaps

Couple of comments:

• No sure why it is not possible to add a GPX file directly to ArcGIS Online - that used to work just fine with the 'classic' Map Viewer.
• Maybe there's a way to do it, but when I import a GPX file into ArcGIS Pro I get the thousands of indiviudal points, not a nice polyline. Sure, I can convert that, but that's another step.
• Seems like you really should edit the GPX points first to remove any weird ones - that's tedious.

Chatter Marks

 

Climate Tipping Points

Not all that interested: Climate Tipping Points (by the ESA).

Dollar Street

See how families around the world live, sorted by monthy income: Dollar Street. Anna Rosling Rönnlund explains the project in her TED Talk embedded below.

A Virtual World With Self-Driving Cars

Seen on Maps Mania: A Virtual World With Self-Driving Cars, created from scratch. Create your own by taking this YouTube course. Here's an example: https://radufromfinland.com/projects/virtualworld/