Ecoclimax

In urban areas of the United States, levels of NO2 fell, mainly because of environmental regulations that reduced emissions from motor vehicles and power plants. Declines are most evident in the eastern United States, though densely populated western cities such as Los Angeles (56 percent), Phoenix (54 percent), Atlanta (48 percent), New York (45 percent) also saw levels drop significantly. NO2 concentrations increased slightly in the Williston Basin (North Dakota), the Permian Basin (west Texas), and the Eagle Ford Shale (southern Texas)—areas where natural gas and oil production has increased dramatically due to horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing. Aura observed declining NO 2 levels over most European cities, likely due to the tightening of vehicle emission standards. The cites in Europe that experienced the largest decreases were Madrid (48 percent), Lisbon (47 percent), and Barcelona (44 percent). The story in the Middle East was mixed. In Iraq, N

This cartogram shows the land surface transformed according to the absolute travel time that is necessary to reach the nearest large city using a gridded cartogram projection. The larger a grid cell appears, the more remote it is, highlighting the least accessible spaces on the planet (Antarctica has not been included in the transformation and appears in its original shape). Via viewsoftheworld.net & geographical.co.uk

2015 was hottest year in recorded history. This visualization illustrates Earth’s long-term warming trend, showing temperature changes from 1880 to 2015 as a rolling five-year average. Orange colors represent temperatures that are warmer than the 1951-80 baseline average, and blues represent temperatures cooler than the baseline.

The ecological footprint describes the number of planets that were needed for a sustainable future if all people on the planet were using the same resources. It is expressed as x-planet living for a country. A: Shown on a conventional map, B: Shown on a gridded population cartogram, C: Shown as a gridded cartogram where each grid cell is resized according to its total ecological footprint. Via viewsoftheworld.net