Breathing Earth
September 15, 2006 6:50 AM   Subscribe

Breathing Earth. A map of the world showing a real-time simulation of the CO2 emissions level of every country in the world, as well as each countries birth and death rates.
posted by stbalbach (24 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
utterly horrifying. so much for any thoughts of continuing the b. family name. and the 'breathing' noise creeps me right out.
posted by carsonb at 6:55 AM on September 15, 2006


Neat.
posted by dead_ at 7:14 AM on September 15, 2006


the look of site is so soothing - quite a contrast to the information being provided!
posted by suki at 7:33 AM on September 15, 2006




Interesting post. Thanks, stbalbach.
Now relate the CO2 to global warming and the destruction of forests by the pine beetle that's no longer killed by cold winters...
Tip of the melting iceberg.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:42 AM on September 15, 2006


Very cool. They don't overwhelm you with info, which is key.
posted by sciurus at 7:45 AM on September 15, 2006


Excellent post, fascinating link. Thanks.
posted by MrMustard at 7:48 AM on September 15, 2006


Ohhhh, Caaaanada.....
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Although it's not really fair to lump Alaska in with the rest of the U.S. They ought to have their own stats.
posted by CynicalKnight at 7:48 AM on September 15, 2006


The audio sounds like earwigs burrowing into my skull. Make it stop! Quick, I'm gonna fart and turn Canada red. 5...4...3...2...1...
posted by jimmythefish at 8:02 AM on September 15, 2006


so, developed countries have low birth rates and high carbon dioxide emissions. developing countries have high birth and low CO2. a few rapidly shifting countries like China have high CO2 and a high birth rate.

shocking.
posted by 1-2punch at 8:11 AM on September 15, 2006


the look of site is so soothing - quite a contrast to the information being provided!

I think the whole thing is freaky - info and appearance. Especially those death stars. Although, I suppose, they're they best news on the site.
posted by Amizu at 8:19 AM on September 15, 2006


could be named countdown to self-destruction.
posted by borgesian at 8:19 AM on September 15, 2006


I just get undefined for everything. Is there a secret trick to get it to load the data?
posted by jacquilynne at 8:22 AM on September 15, 2006


Since you've been reading Metafilter, 100,000 people have died.
posted by crunchland at 8:30 AM on September 15, 2006


Wow. Finally, a best of the web post!
posted by hoborg at 8:46 AM on September 15, 2006


Great post, thank you.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:55 AM on September 15, 2006


I am distraught at seeing the number of people being born vs. dying. I mean, fundamentally, I KNOW that there are more people being born. But damn, watching overpopulation in progress is depressing.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 9:03 AM on September 15, 2006


this is cool...so many births in India and China
posted by amberglow at 9:15 AM on September 15, 2006


I just get undefined for everything. Is there a secret trick to get it to load the data?
I got the same thing in Opera. Try it in a different browser - switching to Safari did the trick for me.
posted by DenOfSizer at 10:31 AM on September 15, 2006


so amazing. thaks for the link.
posted by metasav at 11:01 AM on September 15, 2006


This is awesome. But I wish it were standardized by land area somehow. If the US and China were broken up into areas approximately the size of European countries, their emissions wouldn't add up to 1000 tons quite so quickly, and the area turning red wouldn't be quite so big. I'm not trying to defend the U.S. -- we have really high emissions, measured per capita, per dollar of GDP, however you want to standardize it -- but I think that point would be even clearer if the data were standardized. And I feel like North Dakota is getting wrongly implicated because it hangs out with the wrong crowd, while areas with lots of car commuters or manufacturing deserve to get more focus. Likewise, I bet there are some emission hot spots that aren't showing up in other countries because they don't add up to 1000 tons right away. So, I doubt the data is available to do this yet, but how cool would the map be if it were rasterized instead of country-sized vectors?

Anyway, really cool link, thanks!
posted by salvia at 11:10 AM on September 15, 2006


Thanks for ruining my day.

I'm gonna go walk home.
posted by triolus at 11:33 AM on September 15, 2006


I am distraught at seeing the number of people being born vs. dying. I mean, fundamentally, I KNOW that there are more people being born. But damn, watching overpopulation in progress is depressing.

Overpopulation is a distraction. People are only a problem when their level of consumption is not sustainable. Only if the world's resources were allocated equally then we could have a clear perspective on ideal population.
posted by verisimilitude at 4:53 PM on September 15, 2006


Overpopulation is a distraction.

Good point. Witness the recent news about the global obesity pandemic.

Seems like Fuller was right and Malthus was wrong. If only we didn't want so much damn stuff.
posted by mrgrimm at 5:19 PM on September 15, 2006


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