Category: Population

Change the Way You Think About Food – An Infographic Animation

Change the Way You Think About Food – An Infographic Animation

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Early this year there was lots of talk about the prediction that by 2050 our population on earth will be over 9 billion people.

The question that goes along with these numbers – is how can everyone be fed with this many people, and where will it grow?  An infographic animation produced by the World Wildlife Fund called Change the way you think about food asks this question.

The piece gives information graphics and visualizations to present a picture of what would happen if we could freeze the footprint of food by doubling the productivity of farming.  The piece indicates that to grow enough food, everything will have to change.

This is the first piece I have seen that uses information visualization effectively to raise questions about our growing population and our food supply.

Image Source:
Change the way you think about food Animation

Links:

Change the way you think about food Animation

 

 

 

.

The 7 Billion of Us – All Together

The 7 Billion of Us – All Together

Posted on by Kbaumlier

If you haven’t heard yet – this weekend the population of the world will be 7 billion.

The 7 billionth baby somewhere in the world will be born around Halloween (or maybe if he/she is lucky – on Halloween.)

A study found that it will be possible to feed up to 10 billion people – but that it will not be easy.

The study offers some core strategies to meet future food production needs and environmental changes.

Some of these strategies are:

  • Stop farming in places like tropical rainforests, which have high ecological value and low food output;
  • Improve crop yields in regions of Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe where farmland isn’t meeting its potential;
  • Change farming practices to better manage water, nutrients, and chemicals;
  • Shift diets away from meat; and
  • Stop wasting food (up to one-third of all food grown is wasted either in production, transport, or after purchase).

What is the carbon footprint of a baby born this weekend?

Over his/her lifetime, each American born in the 1990s will produce an average of:

  • 3.1 million pounds of CO2 (same as 413 plane trips from New York to Tokyo)
  • 22,828,508 pounds of water waste (the equivalent of 48,060 10-minute showers)
  • 16,372 pounds of yard waste (enough to fill 442 large garbage cans)
  • 7,249 pounds of food waste (as much as 16 households produce in a year)
  • She/he will eat 1,654 chickens, 74 turkeys, 25 pigs, 11 cows, two sheep, and 18,675 eggs.
  • And she/he will use 1,870 barrels of petroleum (enough to fuel a Subaru Outback for 822,800 miles).