The two maps below are part of a series of maps that warp the size and shape of countries according to various international disproportions (see lots more here).
These two warp countries according to how much they are contributing to global warming and how much they are likely to suffer from global warming respectively.
The first shows the world in terms of carbon emissions. America, for instance, is huge. So is China. And Europe. Africa is hardly visible. The second map shows the world in terms of increased mortality — that is to say, deaths — from climate change. Suddenly, America virtually disappears. So does Europe. Africa, however, is grotesquely distended. South Asia inflates.
Long story short, we spit out the carbon, but it’s people in Africa and South Asia who are mostly going to die because of it.
Thanks to Toban B. who linked to these maps in a comments thread.
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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Comments 18
Jennifer — June 30, 2009
Very depressing. What's even sadder is that most Western nations (or even citizens of Western nations on an individual level) will not make a big change in their habits if the data shows that they will not be harmed by the result of their inaction.
Thaddeus — June 30, 2009
I'm not sure that I entirely buy that. Why is Alaska bigger than all of Canada on the first map?
Ali — June 30, 2009
Thaddeus, because the graph results are shown by country and Alaska is part of the U.S.
Thaddeus — June 30, 2009
Then where is Hawaii?
I'm still having a hard time believing that Canada would be that small.
Maggie — June 30, 2009
wow. sad.
b — June 30, 2009
Considering that Canada's total population is only about 10% that of the US, it makes perfect sense that it would only be about 1/10 the size on the map, if you assume that the per capita rate of emissions is about the same.
Ali — July 1, 2009
This is just a guess on my part, but I wouldn't be suprised if whoever created the map just deleted Hawaii from the first map because otherwise it would have ended up in the same place as the legend.
And seconding b's comment about population in the US vs Canada.
Quién paga el cambio climático — July 1, 2009
[...] Quién paga el cambio climáticothesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/06/30/global-warming-causes-and-... por Lordo hace pocos segundos [...]
Thaddeus — July 1, 2009
What about the Western European nations there compared to Canada?
Ali — July 2, 2009
What about them? I've never heard a lot about major industrialization and factories and such going on in Canada (anecdotal, I know) but I have heard that a lot about Eastern European countries. So why wouldn't it make sense that Canada has less carbon emissions than other countries with lots of factories?
Max — July 10, 2009
Pretty pictures of bad science.
Ron Unger — July 11, 2009
I wonder how much policy makers in various countries are looking at maps like these, and making decisions based on them? Then again, I don't think most policy makers look at much of anything beyond a few years out, ten at most.
benrush — July 11, 2009
Where did you get these maps?
Based on your links, they appear to come from worldmapper. But I can't find the exact same maps on their site.
I found a map very similar to "A" at http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=295, but it has subtle differences: look how much larger Japan is in worldmapper version, for instance. And on the worldmapper version, India is larger than Germany.
But the map you've posted has no sources listed, so we can't compare the data.
And I can't find anything similar to map "B" on the worldmapper site.
murray — July 31, 2009
.....and human produced carbon is what % of total carbon released into the atmosphere? wonder what the mortality maps would look like if we stopped producing carbon tomorrow?
“Global Warming: Causes And Effects” « Mobilization for Climate Justice – London, Ontario — September 5, 2009
[...] Warming: Causes And Effects” 2009 Leave a comment Go to comments Lisa on the Sociological Images blog The two maps below are part of a series of maps that warp the size and shape of countries according [...]
Weekly (weekly) « Southend-on-Sea in Transition — November 14, 2009
[...] Global Warming: Causes And Effects » Sociological Images [...]
riaz — November 28, 2009
Global Warming will devastate crop yields in ountries near the equator
That may call for a separate warp map?
| Cakalak Conspiracy — March 16, 2010
[...] Debate and skepticism are among the driving forces behind science; it would be wrong to do away with them. Michael Crichton, whose testimony before Congress disputed the reality of AGW, asked: “When did ‘skeptic’ become a dirty word in science? When did a skeptic require quotation marks around it?” But when it comes to the reality of AGW the available evidence points to consensus; the word Skeptic gets put into quotes in this context because skepticism is very different from disbelief in the face of overwhelming evidence, which is what is being advocated. This framing has an obvious effect: it ensures that the debate- the political and social one, not the scientific one- never ends; a debate that never ends need not be acted upon. The image it conjures in my mind is of a ‘skeptic’ facing down something very big, moving very fast, making angry noises, and refusing to take cover until it was completely settled whether this creature is a mountain lion or a velociraptor – or better yet, attempting to have a civil debate with the creature as it mauls the ‘skeptic’. Unfortunately, though AGW is big, fast, and angry, it is unlikely to target the ‘skeptics’ who have gotten rich delaying meaningful action, but the people of poor and developing countries. [...]