RJ's Inspiration #019 🥵

RJ's Inspiration

weekly viz to inspire you too

🥵 MELTING GLACIERS
is the topic of  2017 New York Times visual essay "Mapping 50 Years of Melting Ice in Glacier National Park" by Nadja Popovich (Twitter). Ice extent of dozens of named glaciers (blue) is compared to fifty years ago (grey). Many have lost over half of their coverage area. Head to the original article to see all 39 illustrated glaciers. link

It is an inspiring design: The reduction is undeniable (not a single glacier gains area). Organizing the small multiple glaciers by coverage area, while maintaining the same geographic scale, elevates details that can become lost on a traditional map. The article concludes by directly confronting a likely pushback by science deniers:

Dr. Fagre noted that even under natural conditions, these small, vulnerable mountain glaciers would have lost ground over the past 50 years — but they would have eventually stabilized at a reduced size. Instead, the park is on track to lose its glaciers within a generation.

This punctuating last note connects back to the horrible irony of the article's introduction: Glacier National Park is losing its glaciers.

🎧 INFO WE TRUST: AUDIO BOOK
My book Info We Trust is now an audiobook, debuting today as the  #1 New Release  in Amazon's "Information Theory" category. Give it a (free!) preview listen and let me know what you think: Amazon

👉 ARE YOU ENJOYING THIS SERIES?
Please reply directly to share your favorite viz, offer any advice for how this newsletter experiment can be improved, or say hello. -RJ