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Data Vis Dispatch
August 27th, 2024

Data Vis Dispatch, August 27

The best of last week’s big and small data visualizations

Vivien Serve
Vivien Serve

Welcome back to the 157th edition of the Data Vis Dispatch! Every week, we publish a collection of the best small and large data visualizations we find, especially from news organizations — to celebrate data journalism, data visualization, simple charts, elaborate maps, and their creators.

Recurring topics this week include polls, mosquitoes, and air quality.

A new way to visualize air pollution inspired by Ed Hawkins’ climate stripes:

The Guardian: Can climate stripes change the way we think about air pollution?, August 23

But that’s not all from climate and environment. In the light of the enormous heat of recent weeks, Átlátszó took a look at the death toll caused by extreme weather. Plus, the potential of renewable energy in India and rising plastic pollution:

Átlátszó: Sokan meghalnak a kánikulában, 20 másodpercenként hívják a mentőket [Many people die in the heatwave, the ambulance is called every 20 seconds], August 23
Ember: Drivers to Coal Phase-Down in India: Part 1 – Battery Cost Declines, August 20
El Confidencial: No reciclar le costó a España 686 millones de euros en 2023 [Not recycling cost Spain 686 million euros in 2023], August 23

It was a big week for maps on the war between Russia and Ukraine:

Der Spiegel: So kämpfen die Ukrainer mit Billigdrohnen gegen Russland [How Ukrainians are fighting Russia with cheap drones], August 23
Gazeta Wyborcza: Wojna w Ukrainie. Sytuacja w obwodzie kurskim Rosji i na froncie wschodnim Ukrainy [War in Ukraine. Situation in Kursk Oblast of Russia and on the Eastern Front of Ukraine], August 22

But it’s not just maps:

The Economist: Has Ukraine’s shock raid successfully diverted Russian forces?, August 21
Тексти: 11919 прильотів за час війни, або 26 в день. Генштаб оприлюднив дані про обстріли ракетами і безпілотниками [11,919 arrivals during the war, or 26 per day. The General Staff has published data on shelling by missiles and drones], August 22
Bloomberg: A Warning From Onboard the ‘Old Piles of Junk’ Ferrying Russia’s Oil Across the Baltic Sea, August 22 More Visualizations

War and death are not only in Russia and Ukraine. We also found data on terrorism and the ongoing Korean conflict:

theeuropeancorrespondent: “[…] Since 1970, more than 20,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured in terror attacks across Europe. The impact has been felt across many countries, with Türkiye experiencing a particularly high number of attacks due to its long-standing conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), leading to over 7,000 terror incidents in the past 50 years. Credits to Simon Scarr for the design,” August 22 (Instagram Post)
Reuters: A torrent of trash, August 23 Stunning Visuals!

We close the category of bad news with nuclear missiles decades past their projected lifespan and the spread of mpox in Africa:

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Nuclear Missile Silos Need Modernizing, but Fixes Aren’t Coming Soon, August 26
Le Monde: Ce que l’on sait sur l’épidémie de mpox : transmission, dangerosité, population à risque [What we know about the MPOX epidemic: transmission, danger, population at risk], August 21

Cut to politics, specifically U.S. elections:

Reuters: Democrats’ new optimism, August 23
Climate Power: NEW: Harris Battleground Poll – Winning on Climate and Energy, August 20
The New York Times: Words Used at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, August 23

In the broader range of election-related visualizations — Elon Musk’s transformation into a vocal Trump supporter, and women heads of government around the world:

The Wall Street Journal: Elon Musk’s Hard Turn to Politics, in 300,000 of His Own Words, August 25
The Washington Post: How many women presidents and prime ministers have served in your lifetime?, August 22

This week, three visualizations have taken the effort to explain in detail what polling can and can’t tell us:

The Wall Street Journal: Election Polls are Fuzzy. We Explain With Kittens, August 24
The Washington Post: Who is ahead in Harris vs. Trump 2024 presidential polls right now?, August 26
Zeit Online: Werden Sachsen und Thüringen unregierbar? [Will Saxony and Thuringia become ungovernable?], August 23

One more thing to evaluate this week: your city (if you live in Vienna, the U.S., or Aberdeen):

Florian Ledermann: “Explore the distribution of land use in #Vienna with our new Grätzlfarben web map: It is based on the “Kiezcolors” project from ODIS Berlin, which we adapted for Vienna. We also made the code a bit more easily re-usable, so creating your own local Grätzlfarben/Kiezcolors may not be that far off! […] Main credits go to my colleague Ester Scheck who led this project,” August 22 (Mastodon Post, Grätzlfarben)
The Washington Post: Where mosquito season is getting longer, August 22
The Press & Journal: Who owns the vacant units on Aberdeen’s Union Street?, August 26

We conclude with the closely related topics of work and migration:

El País: ¿En qué trabajan los extranjeros en España? La mitad de los chinos en comercio y un tercio de los marroquís en el campo [What do foreigners in Spain do? Half of the Chinese work in commerce and a third of Moroccans in the countryside], August 25
theeuropeancorrespondent: “The costly Balkan brain drain. The Western Balkans are facing a significant exodus, with up to 30% of their populations – particularly young, educated workers – leaving for better opportunities abroad […]. Created by Mandy Spaltman. Source: Westminster Foundation for Democracy,” August 25 (Instagram Post)
Financial Times: Cooling US jobs market looms over central bankers at Jackson Hole, August 21

What else we found interesting

Kris’s n&w account: meat industry olympics […] via @YouTube,” August 22 (Tweet, YouTube Video)
The Washington Post: The signs I saw at the DNC and RNC conventions, August 23
derya: “In “Discursive Patinas: Anchoring Discussions in Data Visualizations,” we (Tobias Kauer, @nrchtct, Benjamin Bach) present a new vis technique that visualizes discussions about visualizations, inspired by traces left in the physical world,” August 26 (Mastodon Post, Paper)

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Vivien Serve
Vivien Serve
(she/her) is a working student on Datawrapper’s Communications team. She creates the Data Vis Dispatch to keep data visualization enthusiasts up to date on exciting new projects. When she’s not working, she studies interface design, and when she’s not studying, she’s planning a festival stage or soldering light installations. Vivien lives in Potsdam.

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