Ideas, issues, knowledge, data — visualized!

This clever illustration from the “Information is Beautiful” is from the website of David McCandless, a London-based author, writer and designer.  It makes it easier to imagine the relative amounts of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere and marks the predicted dates of some consequences of climate change.  Check it out at:

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/how-many-gigatons-of-co2/

Personally, I’m a big fan of clever and easy-to-follow illustrations because they are part art and part teaching genius.  They also appeal to my tendency to think in abstract shapes and patterns.  What do you think of this illustration?

There are numerous other examples of illustrated data sets worth exploring on this website, such as:

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/snake-oil-supplements/

By the way, that beautiful photo is from © David Liittschwager / National Geographic Stock.