Data + Design Project

Changing Forests: Interactive Map of Tree Losses

Thursday 10.13.2011 , Posted by

The rapid decline of forests around the world is having an impact on local environments and the world as a whole. This sobering graphic by The New York Times brings home the impact of both the ancient forests we have lost, and the recent deforestation worldwide due to logging for timber, clearing farmland and even making toilet paper. As the Times reports, the “world’s 9.9 billion acres of forest absorb roughly a quarter of human emissions of carbon dioxide, and help limit the increase of the gas in the atmosphere.” As our world continues to heat up, even by small increments, will we see further forests lost to climate change? [Read more...]

Uncontacted Tribes in the Amazon

Friday 02.11.2011 , Posted by


Showing the first-ever aerial footage of an uncontacted indigenous community, Survival, a tribal advocacy group has recently released moving images shot for the BBC’s show “Human Planet.” Living in the lush Peruvian rain forest, this remotely located people continue to live as did our ancestors from thousands of years past, sustaining themselves on a diet of mangoes, cultivated rain forest plants and dwelling in shelters made of palm fronds.

Now the Indians’ survival is in jeopardy. An influx of illegal loggers continue to wash over the border from Brazil and as these two people groups meet, the fear is that the loggers will not shoot images, but guns. [Read more...]