Psst ... Hey, you. Wanna take the red pill? Wanna know the true state of the world? Drag your head out of the media-matrix and consider the big picture, the numbers that measure the stocks and flows, the deeper drivers behind the staccato popcorn we call "news"?
Fasten your seatbelt.
Our topic is "Indicators - Global".
The next three websites could feed your statistical curiosity for the next several months. And these are just the free options; if you're willing to plunk down a hundred bucks here and there, you will be happily swimming in data for several years more.
We're talking GDP per capita (see the map - can you tell who's rich?), carbon dioxide emissions, education levels, biodiversity, air quality, AIDS infection rates, teen births ... These are the numbers that reflect the physical and human realities of the world. They are the very definition of big picture.
It's all there for the downloading.
Let's start with the most user-friendly site: the EarthTrends Information Portal, run by World Resources Institute. Here you can pull up groovy maps like this one in a heartbeat, on a whole raft of issues, plus specific data on specific countries. Don't let the world "Earth" fool you into thinking this is just envirodata; this is the whole sustainability enchilada, business, social trends, the works. Need to back up that running argument with Uncle Phil about climate change, fisheries collapse, whatever? Just the place to go.
If you're geekier than that, check out the United Nations Statistical Division, where you can review the Indicators for the UN Millennium Goals ... and a heck of a lot more. You'll have to do a bit more wading around in the datamuck to find what you want, but it will have the imprimatur of the UN behind it, and it will be linked directly to the only candidate for an operating Global Vision for Humanity.
Finally, my personal favorite, and an early heads-up for the Worldchanging cognoscenti (care-o-scenti, maybe?). My indicator-wonk friend and colleague -- yes, I confess, I am and have been an indicator wonk during various periods of my life -- Adil Najam of Boston University has created a terrific new data gateway: The Project on Human Development. It's still in beta, which makes it all the cooler. Here you can get access to a lot of the same data on the sites above ... but you can do so much more. You can generate your own indices, combining different indicators from different countries. You can build your own spreadsheets. Save one of the output web pages, and you'll instantly have JPGs of all the world's flags, in miniature. I could go on and on.
Poking through these sites may be dizzying. It's best to go in with a goal, e.g.: "I want to get the big picture on climate change, vis a vis economic growth." Or a question: "What's the bigger problem, AIDS or malaria?" You will certainly get sidetracked as other things pique your interest. But you will also, certainly, come out more awake than when you went in. And you will probably know more than certain barely-elected leaders of the western world's last superpower (why do so few people understand that China is a superpower?).
One final tip: Another friend and wonk-colleague, Jochen Jesinghaus, has built a little Windows application called the Dashboard, which you can download for free at his site. I'm a Mac guy, so I've never played with it myself ... but it's a very flexible tool for viewing data. Check it out.
Warning: Remember that it is impossible to forget the facts once you know them.
