The Daily Telegraph published a handful of cartograms yesterday from The Atlas of the Real World
The Atlas of the Real World includes 366 digitally modified maps ‘depicting the areas and countries of the world not just by their physical size, but by their demographic importance on a vast range of subjects.’
The book focuses on a 'variety of subjects ranging from population, health, wealth and occupation to how many toys we import and who’s eating their vegetables.' The Daily Telegraph picked up Land Area, Aircraft Travel, Rail Travel, Mopeds and Motorcycles, Nuclear Weapons, and both the Increase and Decrease in Emissions of Carbon Dioxide. Here are a few I found most interesting:
Aircraft Travel: the size of each territory indicates the total distance flown by aircraft registered there.
Nuclear Weapons: As of 2002, eight countries are known or suspected to have strategic nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Israel, India and Pakistan.
Increase in Emissions of Carbon Dioxide: Between 1980 and 2000, nearly three-quarters of all territories saw an increase in carbon dioxide emissions, with China, the United States and India leading the way.
Decrease in Emissions of Carbon Dioxide: Between 1980 and 2000, 28 per cent of countries reduced their emissions. Almost half of reduction were made in territories of the former Soviet Union, while Germany (15 per cent), Poland (eight per cent) and France (six per cent) also made substantial cuts.
With almost 400 pages displaying new ways of looking at the world, The Atlas of the Real World provides us many spots at which to stand to gain a new perspective. Seeing the areas and countries of the world manipulated in this way gives a simplistic elegance to the complicated topics they address; they make clear in one image what some books take hundreds of pages to explain.
This collection of delicious mind candy will no doubt be proudly displayed on the coffee tables of cartography geeks and info-fiends alike for years to come, and will hopefully infiltrate the libraries and classrooms of schools throughout the world. If you're hungry for more information like this, and need instant satisfaction, I would highly recommend geeking out for a few hours on the Worldmapper site.
Images from The Atlas of the Real World: Mapping the Way We Live by Daniel Dorling, Mark Newman and Anna Barford, published by Thames & Hudson
