The 21st century world(viewed from Houston)

And what about worldwide – ‘top’ universities drawn on a population base

‘top’ universities spread over a world where area is proportional to GDP

Drawn by Ben Hennig: Unequal Elite: The THE World University Rankings

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-24866265

But we also live in a physical world, not just a world of GDP, universities, life chances and prizes. And that physical world is changing too. Typhoons are becoming stronger and more frequent.

Super Typhoon Haiyan:

The lights are turning on all the way up the Nile, as people crowd into less and less space

…To finish with let’s look at what happens when you take a composite of many satellite images like this and draw them over the map of the planet, but with that map stretched to give everyone equal space so we can see who is wasting light and who is not (or has none)?

http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/620/overrides/new-view-earth-at-night-nile_62008_600x450.jpg

Cartography by

Ben Hennig

At the end of 2012 NASA updated its image of the sky at night. Cairo/Alexandria

appeared to shine brighter than Tokyo. This map will grow, it needs to become duller.

A few years earlier the world map looked like this…

An image of the world at night taken a few years ago, before the Tsunami hit Japan.

Try to spot the four tiny spots of light in NZ and compare them to London…

Try to see the world as being made up of people. The vast majority of the planet

shrinks away as most land is unoccupied and the wildernesses are vast. Rural

populations are already falling and set to fall further. The map of human beings is

becoming a map of a sea of cities, and a few people in a few cities consume most.

But now take away The oceans

And then you might find you are on the edge of the world again

7 billion people rising to 10 billion in your lifetime

I don’t think

we’ll get to 10

billion.

But I don’t

think that is

what matters

most.

The planet

cannot

support 1

billion people

behaving

badly

?

Global Inequality

24 of the richest countries of the world (by GDP per capita) which are home to at least two million people,they are home to 13% of the world’s population, and almost 50% of world income (GDP)

Global Population

Japan

Germany

France

Spain

UK

USA

This is a reprojection of the population distribution, showing where most people are livingA few countries are highlighted to make it easier to read.

Global Wealth

The world resized according to each country’s gross domestic product Source: modified and updated map from www.worldmapper .org

Japan

Germany

France

Spain

UK

USA

Inequality in the rich worldbest-off/worse-off 10%

income ratio from UNDP

17.7 Singapore

15.9 United States

15.0 Portugal

13∙8 United Kingdom

13.4 Israel

12.5 Australia

12.5 New Zealand

11.6 Italy

10.3 Spain

10.2 Greece

9.4 Canada

9.4 Ireland

9.2 Netherlands

9.1 France

9.0 Switzerland

8.2 Belgium

8.1 Denmark

7.3 Slovenia

6.9 Austria

6.9 Germany

6.2 Sweden

6.1 Norway

5.6 Finland

4.5 Japan

Japan

4∙5

Germany

6∙9

France

9∙1

Spain

10∙3

UK

13∙8

USA

15∙9

What could be the effects of the effects… of economic inequality

We are going to look at

Meat consumption

Water consumption

Waste production

Number of Flights

Ecological impact

in each of the most affluent countries.

You might think: "Surely, if a few people hold most of the wealth we all consume less?"

Inequality and meat

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Mea

t co

nsu

mp

tio

n in

kg

per

yea

r p

er p

erso

n

Inequality

Not if you are concerned about how much meat we farm and consume

Japan

Germany

France

Spain

UK

USA

Inequality and water

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

wat

er in

m3

per

yea

r p

er p

erso

n

Inequality

Not if you are concerned about how much water we use (apart from the UK!)

Japan

Germany

France

Spain

UK

USA

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Inequality and waste

Not if you are concerned about how much waste we each produce

Japan

Germany FranceSpain

UK

USA

Inequality

Singapore

1100

Mu

nic

ipal

was

te c

olle

cted

(kg

per

cap

ita

per

yea

r)

Inequality and flights

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

60Norway

Ireland

New Zealand

ann

ual

air

craf

t d

epar

ture

s p

er t

ho

usa

nd

peo

ple

Inequality

Not if you are concerned about how many flights we each take (on average)

Japan

GermanyFrance

Spain

UK

USA

Italy

Canada

Inequality and ecology

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20Inequality

Eco

logi

cal f

oo

tpri

nt

in g

lob

al h

ecta

res

per

cap

ita

Japan

Germany

France

SpainUK

USA

Singapore

Not if you are concerned about how many planets we might need to exist:An Ecological Footprint of 2.1 global hectares per capita equals one-planet living

Data sources

UNDP/FAO http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=126

UNDP/LPR http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=104

UNSD http://unstats.un.org/unsd/ENVIRONMENT/qindicators.htm

World Bank World Development Indicators 2005 (IS.AIR.DPRT)

WWF Living Planet Index 2008

More and more geographical data is becoming available, often for the first time.

For many issues

(such asWalking

and Cycling)

How do we compare?

Human life on earth