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Data Vis Dispatch
March 21st, 2023

Data Vis Dispatch, March 21

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

Photo of Veronika Halamková, data vis writer at Datawrapper
Veronika Halamková

Welcome back to the 86th 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 arrival of spring, a new UN climate report, and Ukraine.

Today marks the first day of spring this year, and it’s finally starting to feel that way outside too — at least where we are! Does spring arrive earlier each year? Well, it depends on where you live and what you look for.

National Geographic: Nature is out of sync—and that’s reshaping everything, everywhere, March 14
The Washington Post: When will spring come? Or has it already? Look up where you live, March 15

But spring isn’t the only important arrival this week. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations’ expert body for assessing climate change, published its latest report calling for urgent action.

Alex Ruane: “Very proud to have led team developing #IPCC SYR Figure SPM.1, released today, which shows how current and future generations have different experiences with climate change,” March 20 (Tweet)
The Financial Times: Global warming set to reach 1.5C in the near-term, UN reports, March 20
The Financial Times: Is 1.5C still realistic? The crumbling consensus over key climate target, March 16

The temperatures are already changing and there’s a need to follow through on ambitious energy transition plans.

Straits Times: Sleepless in Singapore? Even nights are getting hotter according to 40-year temperature data, March 14
ZEIT ONLINE: Der große Umbau kommt erst noch, March 15

Meanwhile, humanity is struggling with (even small-scale) deforestation, unusual deaths of whales, and insufficient standards for drinking water.

ProPublica: How Forest Loss Can Unleash the Next Pandemic, March 16
USA Today: Whale deaths off New Jersey, across East Coast are causing alarm. Here’s a detailed look, March 15
The Wall Street Journal: How ‘Forever Chemicals’ Are All Around Us, From Winter Coats to Fast-Food Wrappers, March 15

While the war continues in Ukraine, Europe makes plans to extend its fenced borders with Russia.

The Washington Post: Drone strikes, sabotage, shelling: Russia’s war on Ukraine comes to Russia, March 20
The Washington Post: The ‘barbed-wire curtain’ dividing Europe from Russia and Belarus, visualized, March 15

And the U.S.-Mexican border has become fatal for a record number of migrants in the past few years.

The Wall Street Journal: ‘It’s Like a Graveyard’: Record Numbers of Migrants Are Dying at the U.S. Border, March 17

Yesterday, March 20, also marked the 20th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Le Figaro: Il y a vingt ans, la guerre des États-Unis en Irak, March 19

March has been an especially dramatic month for the banking sector, from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank to the selling of Credit Suisse.

The New York Times: Why People Are Worried About Banks, March 18
The Wall Street Journal: The Banking Sector Turmoil in Charts, March 18
Bloomberg: Charting How Years of Stumbles Led to the End of Credit Suisse, March 16

Other notable charts of the week covered proportional representation in parliaments, a shocking (and very specific) surge in car thefts, the four-day workweek, and popular dog breeds.

The Economist: Upper legislative houses tend to be biased and malapportioned, March 14
Amber Thomas: “In the first half of 2022, 551 Kias or Hyundais were stolen in Chicago. In the second half of the year 6,250 were stolen, a 10x increase. A short 🧵 about Kias, Hyundais, TikTok, and what’s happening in cities across the US,” March 16 (Tweet)
The Washington Post: With a 4-day workweek, you’d get 15,392 hours — that’s 641 days — back, March 17
The Economist: French bulldogs are taking over America, March 15

What else we found interesting

USA Today: Feeling hangry? From food cravings to brain fog, blood sugar spikes may be the cause, March 14

Applications are open for…

Help us make this dispatch better! We’d love to hear which newsletters, blogs, or social media accounts we need to follow to learn about interesting projects, especially from less-covered parts of the world (Asia, South America, Africa). Write us at hello@datawrapper.de or leave a comment below.

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Photo of Veronika Halamková, data vis writer at Datawrapper
Veronika Halamková
(she/her, @v_halamkova) was a data vis writer in the Communications team between 2022 and 2023. She lives in Berlin and created and wrote beautiful data visualizations. Before Datawrapper, she worked in the data team at Tortoise Media.

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