© www.viewsoftheworld.net The Arctic Circle Assembly is the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, attended by more than 2000 participants from over 60 countries. The Assembly is held every October in Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Center, Reykjavík, Iceland. With the event on the doorstep, a closer look at who has stakes in this region that has received a growing interest in recent years. The following map shows all nations that have territorial claims in the Arctic, the region that is defined as the area that lies North of the Arctic Circle at about 66°34’N: (click for lar ..read more

© www.viewsoftheworld.net Germans went to the polls to elect a new parliament and along with it a new government and a new chancellor. Since outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel did not stand for re-election after 16 years in office, this election marked a turning point in German politics. Without her standing as ‘Spitzenkandidat’, the election campaign turned into a heated fight for voter support with three parties having led the polls at times in the run-up to the election (CDU/CSU, SPD and the Greens). The final result saw the Social Democrats (SPD) winning the race after having trailed in the ..read more

© www.viewsoftheworld.net On 19. March 2021 a volcanic eruption started in the Geldingadalir valley at the Fagradalsfjall mountain on the Reykjanes peninsula, South-West Iceland. The volcano is situated approximately 30 km from the country’s capital city, Reykjavík. The eruption is ongoing and the landscape in the valley and its surrounding area is constantly changing as a result. (click for larger version) Mapping the ongoing eruption poses a challenge: By the time a map has been produced, it already is out of date. Monitoring the dynamic activity therefore requires regular updates to under ..read more

© www.viewsoftheworld.net This cartogram shows the distribution of votes for the two main candidates in the 2020 US Presidential election. Shown in diverging colours is each respective candidate who received the largest share of votes in each county. The cartogram itself shows an equal-population projection (gridded population cartogram) where each grid cell in the map is resized according to the total number of people living there. The main cartogram is accompanied by a ‘conventional’ reference map that also shows the states of Alaska and Hawaii (using state-level results for these two states ..read more

© www.viewsoftheworld.net According to the UK Office for National Statistics, “there were 90,232 deaths occurring in England and Wales [between 1 March and 17 April 2020] that were registered by 18 April; 20,283 of these deaths involved the coronavirus (COVID-19).” The following map plots this data which has been made available at small area statistics on May, 1st, showing the COVID-19-related deaths as a share of all cause deaths in each area of the two nations. The left map shows a conventional map for reference, while the cartogram on the right is proportional to each areas respective popul ..read more

© www.viewsoftheworld.net A time where ‘real world’ conferences are a memory of the past is a good opportunity to look at the wealth of material that has been put online instead. Here is one of my talks that has recently been put online. It’s a four-minute ‘Lightning talk’ given at last year’s Anniversary Annual Conference of the Global Young Academy. Lightning Talks are giving a brief overview of a topic aimed at a broader audience, and here I am – obviously – talking about mapping and cartograms: The talk gives a brief insight into how in human geography and other social sciences cartograms ..read more

© www.viewsoftheworld.net The European Waste Framework Directive sets a target of 50 per cent of municipal waste to be prepared for reuse and recycling by 2020 in the European Union. With that year approaching, a look at the most recent European-wide statistics on waste generation and treatment published in 2017 shows the progress that countries have made across the continent in reaching this target. (click for larger version) The cartogram shows each European country proportional to its overall municipal waste production with its respective recycling rate. While only a small number or EU mem ..read more

© www.viewsoftheworld.net If the 2016 vote for Brexit was described as a political earthquake in the United Kingdom, then the 2019 General Election is the equivalent to the tsunami that followed this seismic event and swept over some of the deepest Labour heartlands in England. Political commentators spoke of a demolishment of the Labour party’s ‘red wall’ as the results came in (although the ‘wall’ that may have once stood had already started to crumble in previous elections). Approaching the outcome of the General Election from a visual perspective puts such metaphors into a visual represent ..read more

© www.viewsoftheworld.net Cigarette smoking and other uses of tobacco are major contributors to preventable illness and death. A 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) report estimated that around 70 per cent of the adult male population in Russia was smoking. Another WHO study estimated that prevalence of smoking amongst women is about one fifth of that amongst men. Prevalence levels of daily smokers are generally lower. (click for larger version) This map shows the population aged 15 years and over who are reporting to smoke every day based on a 2014 WHO study. While global prevalence has not ..read more

© www.viewsoftheworld.net This contribution for Political Insight (June 2019, Volume 10, Issue 2) maps gender inequality around the world and argues that the political sphere is often the most resistant to change. Unequal treatment based on gender is deeply embedded in many countries. Gender studies emerged as an important part of academic research in the 1980s. The issue of gender inequality also emerged on the global political agenda, albeit slowly. Gender-related measures became part of the Human Development Index (HDI) by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (click for larger ..read more