Data Vis Dispatch, August 15

First, the wildfires on Maui, Hawaii. The town of Lahaina was almost completely destroyed, including many historic buildings:

As our latest Dispatches show, wildfires are raging in many parts of the world. The NZZ visualizes that Mediterranean countries have to fight bigger fires than other European countries:

And no surprise here: The cause of more and bigger fires, according to science, is climate change. Bloomberg has some excellent charts showing how higher temperatures are not just a problem in the summer, while the Süddeutsche Zeitung visualizes how hot cities can get at night:

The consequences of climate change visualized this week include health problems, increased erosion – and more swimming pools:

Another consequence: More clean energy; more electric cars. The New York Times and the Financial Times had big stories this week on the energy transition:

Let’s talk about something positive for a moment: The beautiful Perseid meteor showers were most visible this past weekend! We hope you had crystal clear skies to see them.

Argentina’s presidential primaries also took place over the weekend. Far-right outsider Javier Milei surprisingly took the lead:

As they have every week since last February, newsrooms also created maps of the war in Ukraine:

Other visualizations focused on the state of the economy. A job as a policeman in San Francisco or in A.I. seems to help against personal financial problems caused by inflation:

Too many line charts for your taste? Let’s look at more maps – they covered everything from votes and shark attacks to coup support and malaria:

And in our miscellaneous section: Seems like Meta’s Twitter competitor Threads didn’t really take off – unlike subtitles, which are becoming more and more popular: