Jo Wooden, a professor of visible analytics, has launched a powerful cartogram visualizing every nation’s annual CO₂ emissions over the previous 200 years. The map was created for the #30DayMapChallenge.
Press ‘play’ on the International C02 Emissions map to view an animated timeline of annual CO₂ emissions by nation, from 1800 to 2022. This dynamic visualization provides fascinating insights into the historical past of world air pollution because the starting of the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution
At the beginning of the visualization, in 1800, the UK stands out as the best emitter of CO₂. The UK’s central function within the Industrial Revolution, which started within the late 18th century, led to intensive coal consumption, far outpacing most different international locations on the time. Belgium can also be notable on the map as an early excessive emitter of CO₂. As one of many first continental European international locations to industrialize, Belgium adopted intently within the UK’s footsteps. The nation’s southern area, notably Wallonia, had ample coal deposits, making coal a major vitality supply for its industrial actions.
For a lot of the nineteenth century, Europe stands alone because the world’s nice polluter. Kuwait seems to be an outlier, with some unexpectedly excessive per capita emissions all through the nineteenth century. From the center of the century, the USA additionally started to emerge as a world chief in air air pollution.
The twentieth Century
As industrialization unfold worldwide throughout the twentieth century, CO₂ output grew to become a near-global phenomenon. Within the early a part of the century, the U.S. emerged as the biggest per capita emitter of CO₂. The International CO₂ Emissions cartogram illustrates how, within the latter half of the century, oil-rich Center Jap states grew to become a number of the highest per capita CO₂ producers. The cartogram additionally highlights how most African international locations have maintained comparatively low per capita emissions of CO₂ over the past 200 years.
There’s a lot to admire on this historic cartogram. Using distinct colours for every continent not solely helps customers find particular person international locations on the map but additionally gives added context for the accompanying streamgraph. This streamgraph emphasizes the numerous “cumulative impact of accelerating (although now regularly lowering) CO₂ emissions” over time. The coloured bands correspond to the 5 continents and depict the cumulative CO₂ output of every continent over time.
The expansion of the blue band on the streamgraph reveals the rise of Asia as an industrial powerhouse within the late twentieth century. Notably, whereas China has turn into one of many world’s largest emitters of CO₂ in complete, its per capita emissions stay a lot decrease than these of the USA and plenty of different ‘western’ international locations.
