Worldmapper

For those of you who don't know, I'm a map geek. I love finding quirks and unusual conditions and out of the way places. I love the barren, icy rocks in the south pacific. The melting around Greenland and even further north is revealing heretofore unknown islands. What used to be the closest point of land to the north pole is no longer. The borders of states along the Mississppi River change as the river leaves oxbow lakes as it carves through the earth. Louisiana grows by miles annually because of the silt (and pollution) that is deposited at the Mississippi Delta. BTW, Did you know, there's a 5,800 square mile "dead zone" of ocean off the MS delta where nothing lives? That's the size of Connecticut. There's not enough oxygen in the water because of chemical reactions with all of our dumped out nitrogen, phosphorus, and hazardous chemicals. It's the largest dead zone in the world.

Here's a few more governmental map quirks that are closer to home for me: There's a whole US town that is separate from the USA, stuck on a penninsula, only bordering Canada. You might need to take a boat or cross two national borders to go see your doctor. Do a search on Point Roberts, Washington. There's a small piece of Kentucky that is separarted from the rest of the state by a bend in the Mississippi River. Search on Google Maps for Kentucky Bend Road, Kentucky. Which three states are the only states to have a geometric arc inscribed as part of their state line? You find it and post it here.

Since downloading Google Earth we've learned that we've intersected with a piece of a map history ourselves. Our house is coincidentally built directly across the 43rd Parallel. The nearest other Parallels are in Grayling, (44th) and Kalamazoo, (42nd). I discovered that and felt like I'd won the map geek lottery. I've threatened to paint it on the walls of the kitchen.

A website that I could spend hours on is http://www.worldmapper.org/ This utility shows a global map with countries in relative sizes to hundreds of variables: population, wealth, tourism, environmental factors, trade, refugees, etc. It also shows interesting factoids about each map and statistical anomolies. Some of them are obvious, some quirky, and some extremely sad. Check out the following:

Land Area.

The map we all know. Note: Japan has 6 times the population of Australia. Compare this map to that of relative population. But first look at these others:

Carbon Emmissions - 1980

The USA and Europe are fat and happy and gross. Note: Africa barely shows up except where there is a strong European influence. Go on the site and see how Carbon Emmissions changes in the year 2000. But wait, I have more!

Tons Recycled

While we are the biggest users - we appear to be the biggest re-users, too. Shame India doesn't even show up. Japan recycles as much as China does - it has to, it has nowhere to put waste. I wonder which country is representing relatively well in South America?

Two more - then you go play there:

Preventable Common Deaths

Africa and India take it on the chin. Haiti is nearly as large as the USA. Australia is non-existent.

Since that one is a major bummer - here's a fun, quirky one:

Number of people named Chang? no...

it's Shipping Container Ports

China ships more far more goods (internally and externally) by shipping container than the rest of the world combined.

Have fun with the site... there are hundreds of variables that each tell a global story.