Some sample screenshots from the “Inconvenient Truth” DVD. I, along with some others I work with, am such a sucker for good infographics. Although the best consistent use seems to have be commissioned by the major daily newspapers in the US, the reigning champion is still Mr. Tufte.
“Many information graphics are specialised forms of depiction that represent their content in sophisticated and often abstract ways. In order to interpret the meaning of these graphics appropriately, the viewer requires a suitable level of graphicacy. In many cases, the required graphicacy involves comprehension skills that are learned rather than innate. At a fundamental level, the skills of decoding individual graphic signs and symbols must be acquired before sense can be made of an information graphic as a whole. However, knowledge of the conventions for distributing and arranging these individual components is also necessary for the building of understanding.”
— http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_graphics
An Inconvient Truth Infographics | A interesting infographics blog
One of the more misleading parts of that info graphic is unfortunately Canada’s roll in Global Warming. If you look at it plainly, we look like good boys. But if you take into account that our population is roughly one 10th the size of the United States, we are just as guilty.
Add into the mix our 30% increase over the past few years thanks to the razing of vast parts of Alberta to extract oil from the Tar Sands and we are doing some insane damage to our and the global environment. It will only get worse as oil prices increase, as they will.
I wonder, do you think the government really cares if it means opening up the Arctic Passage as an alternative to the Panama Canal?