The latest issue of “Nature” has this interesting infographic aimed to visualize the various things “wrong” with the planet Earth, showing how close we are to imminent destruction by various means.
The green is the safe limit, the red represents more or less where we are. For those having trouble reading the left and right red wedges: the left-hand wedge is Biodiversity loss, the right the nitrogen cycle. Nature’s editors put a number of caveats on the science that informs the image:
Aside from the usual complaints about pie charts, the colors could use some work (as voiced in his quote above). In addition, the data is rather suspect:
For the most part, the exact values chosen as boundaries by Rockström and his colleagues are arbitrary. So too, in some cases, are the indicators of change. There is, as yet, little scientific evidence to suggest that stabilizing long-term concentrations of carbon dioxide at 350 parts per million is the right target for avoiding dangerous interference with the climate system.
and much much more.
via Latest attempt to visualize the mess we’re in: A wheel of misfortune : The Island of Doubt.
@Naomi B. Robbins
I’ve never heard it called that, but I like the name.
Technically, You’re correct.. Although I’m not sure what’s going on with the “biogeochemical” red wedge on the right, which is split in half. Why they didn’t just make the circle 10 even slices, instead of 9 with an odd double-slice, eludes me.
A Nightingale rose (or any of the other names this chart goes by) is not a pie chart. A pie chart has a fixed radius and the angles of the wedges vary; this has fixed angles and the radii vary.