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Data Vis Dispatch
June 13th, 2023

Data Vis Dispatch, June 13

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

Lisa Charlotte Muth
Lisa Charlotte Muth

Welcome back to the 97th edition of Data Vis Dispatch! Every week, we’ll be publishing 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 the effect of wildfires in Canada on the U.S. East Coast, the dam breach in Ukraine, rising house prices, and the Champions League.

First, the wildfires in Canada. The resulting smoke made the air quality in New York City go down (and the number of photos of an orange sky in New York City on social media go up):

The Washington Post: Find out just how bad wildfire smoke has been in your area, June 8
The New York Times: Just How Bad Was the Pollution in New York?, June 8
Alex Selby-Boothroyd: “New ‘climate stripes’ just dropped” (created with nysky.com), June 8 (Tweet)
Bloomberg: Biden Offers Help, Trudeau Blames Climate Change: Smoke Latest, June 7
The Wall Street Journal: Smoky Conditions to Last for Days as Canada Wildfires Rage, June 8
Financial Times: Canadian wildfire smoke jars New York with ‘movie of the future’, June 9

While fires have challenged North America, Ukraine battles huge amounts of water after the breach of the Kakhovka Dam last Tuesday. Many newsrooms mapped the massive flooding:

The Washington Post: Satellite images show the devastation from the Kakhovka dam collapse, June 8
Reuters: Mapping the damage from the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse, June 8
Neue Zürcher Zeitung: Die Zerstörung des Staudamms – Bilder zeigen das Ausmass der Katastrophe entlang der Ufer des Dnipro, June 9
The Wall Street Journal: Ukraine’s Counteroffensive in Maps and Charts, June 11
South China Morning Post: Ukraine war: international alarm grows after Nova Kakhovka dam destroyed, June 7
The Guardian: A visual guide to the collapse of Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam, June 9
El País: Las consecuencias de la destrucción de la presa ucrania: un embalse que se vacía, miles de evacuados y centrales energéticas amenazadas, June 7
The Guardian: Maps show how Kakhovka dam collapse threatens Ukraine’s bread basket, June 8

Ukraine has also been in the news because of the counterattacks it started:

The New York Times: Where Ukraine has mounted multiple attacks in broad offensive, June 9
The Wall Street Journal: Ukraine’s Offensive Begins With Ground Gained, Tanks Lost, June 11
The Washington Post: Ukraine’s counteroffensive is underway. Here’s what’s at stake, June 8
SAMIZDATA: The myth of the Russian World, June 6

In climate news, we’ve seen more carbon dioxide, more heat, and more fires:

Financial Times: Climate graphic of the week: the fast-shrinking carbon budget, June 8
CNN: A ‘once-in-200 years’ heat wave caught Southeast Asia off guard. Climate change will make them more common, June 7
Bloomberg: California Wildfires Are Five Times Bigger Than They Used to Be, June 12
Thomas Smith: “Things began to look very unusual two months ago. Today the charts need no commentary, they speak for themselves. This is the Atlantic,” June 10 (Tweet)
Le Monde: Comment nous bouleversons le climat, June 7

…while the U.S. attempts to transition to cleaner energy:

The New York Times: Why the U.S. Electric Grid Isn’t Ready for the Energy Transition, June 12
Financial Times: Gridlock: how a lack of power lines will delay the age of renewables, June 11

“Which kind of cities do we want to live in?” ask two pieces by the The New York Times and the Financial Times:

The New York Times: Noise Could Take Years Off Your Life. Here’s How, June 9
Financial Times: How US cities became one big parking lot, June 9

And more beautiful maps were created in the past week, showing us the U.S. from different perspectives:

The New York Times: The Grand Canyon, a Cathedral to Time, Is Losing Its River, June 6
Axios: Charted: Distance to dark skies, June 10
Los Angeles Times: California’s historic snowpack is melting, June 8
The Washington Post: She survived a White House lightning strike. Could she survive what came next?, June 12
The Washington Post: The Nile is the world’s longest river? The Amazon would like a word, June 12

In our politics section, you’ll see laws, legal actions, and local elections:

The New York Times: The Major Supreme Court Decisions in 2023, June 7
La Nación: Elecciones provinciales, June 11
elDiario.es: Los puestos de salida en las listas de Sumar: el reparto por partidos en cada provincia para el 23J, June 9
Wall Street Journal: Trump Faces 2024 Split Screen of Campaign and Criminal Trials, June 10
Commonwealth Magazine: 最危險的海峽，卻很賺錢, June 7
The Economist: When will China’s GDP overtake America’s?, June 7

Another much-visualized topic has been rising housing prices – be it in Singapore, the U.K., or in U.S. cities:

Bloomberg: Singapore Apartments for Rent Under S$3,000 Are Disappearing, June 8

The Guardian: Find out where you can afford to buy or rent in Great Britain, June 12
Financial Times: The Fed’s waiting game: is the US economy finally starting to crack?, June 12

A more fun topic: Sports! The Champions League final was last weekend. Manchester City won, and newsrooms asked: How much money and transfers did they need to make that happen?

Neue Zürcher Zeitung: Erkauft sich Manchester City das Triple aus Champions League, Meisterschaft und Cup?, June 9
De Tijd: De verscholen voetballersfabriek achter Manchester City, June 9
Bloomberg: Who really owns your football club?, June 8
The Economist: Man City v Inter Milan is the most lopsided final in Champions League history, June 8

Last but not least, we find space endeavors, remote jobs, and a map of Wuhan in our miscellaneous section – and ZEIT Online tells us how much money we could have made by now with small savings (or still can in the future!):

ZEIT Online: So viel Geld bringt Ihnen ein monatliches Aktieninvestment, June 8
SBSData: 기업들이 우주 개발에 뛰어드는 이유가 뭘까?, June 8
The Times: What really went on inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid erupted, June 12
The Wall Street Journal: Where You Can Still Find a Job Working Remotely, June 9

What else we found interesting

The Washington Post: Follow the alleged path of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, June 11
The New York Times: Where Documents Were Found at Mar-a-Lago, June 9
The New York Times: The Trump Classified Documents Indictment, Annotated, June 9

Applications are open for…

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Lisa Charlotte Muth
Lisa Charlotte Muth
(she/her, @lisacmuth, @lisacmuth@vis.social) is Datawrapper’s head of communications. She writes about best practices in data visualization and thinks of new ways to excite you about charts and maps. Lisa lives in Berlin.

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