CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: BEHOLD, THE INVISIBLE
Sometimes we miss what we can’t step back to see. Sometimes the invisible only appears with the creep of time. And sometimes, in the case of historical events, the visible becomes invisible with the loss of a generation. Graphics give us the power to zoom out, to compare, to remember.
1. WHERE We’ve BEEN
Many researchers are now digitizing archival records. From shipping logs to the testimonials of Holocaust survivors, we analyze and visualize datasets that challenge the stories we’ve been told about our past, especially regarding how humans moved – and were moved – across the planet.
2. WHO WE ARE
In the past decade, humanity has generated more data about itself than it did in the previous century. We show how mobile phones can facilitate head counts, we use satellites to reveal the effects of war, and we examine the borders that divide us and the cell towers and undersea cables that connect us.
3. HOW WE’RE DOING
Data has the power to expose truths that some would prefer to keep out of view. In this chapter, we examine inequalities in happiness, unpaid labour and pollution levels and expose where eviction, gender-based violence and unexploded ordnance threaten the lives of our fellow humans.
4. WHAT WE FACE
We show how the climate crisis is influencing everything from hurricanes to the hajj. We measure glacial loss in Alaska and sea level rise in the Marshall Islands; and we reveal how high-tech solutions can help us monitor changes in the atmosphere and respond to problems on the ground.
EPILOGUE
Data have the power to increase our understanding of the world, but there are tradeoffs. How should we strike a balance between the pros and cons? In an era when a single tweet contains more data than text, it’d help if our policymakers understood the technology they’re meant to regulate.
