• What is the overall topic and the goal of your project?

My project was meant to highlight the effects of both deforestation and climate change on each other and on the world as a whole. I was curious to see how deforestation affected climate change because of how trees and other plant life have been shown to affect carbon levels. Deforestation is a topic not widely discussed in relation to climate change, and I wanted to see if there were any obvious impacts on carbon emissions or on air quality in places with more deforestation. I also wanted to highlight these problems for others and make them think about the impact we as a species are having on our planet. Of course most people know about this already, but I really wanted to put into perspective the massive amounts of deforestation and emissions that we as a species are creating.

• What sites did you use to collect your data and create the infographic and what did you learn about it?

I mainly used our world in data, but I also used world data archive. These sites helped me find the world’s carbon emissions, the amount of carbon emissions per capita for a variety of countries, the amount of deaths each year from poor air quality per country, and the amount of deforestation per country for a variety of countries. I enjoyed our world in data’s interface, as you could easily change how the data was displayed. For most of my information I had it displayed in tables, and used the built-in sorting functions to easily gather data.

• How has the process of utilizing these sites impacted your understanding of how technology can change (or help) the world?

It helped me see how easy it is to find this data, and how easily it could be used to make an impactful message. When I was searching for information on deforestation, I came across many different graphs and maps that really put into perspective just how much deforestation was happening in the world, and how much of it was just for housing and agriculture. If used and promoted by the right people, this data could reach hundreds of thousands of people, and really make an impact. It also reminded me of the break the fake assignment from earlier this year, and made me think about just how easy it is to say things with no real proof. These websites can be valuable resources in finding fake vs. real information online, as there is so much data and information on these sites. I think that if used by the right people, not only could these websites and data be used to inspire and motivate people, they could also be used to disillusion and protect people from false information.

• Sources

Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2021, February 9). Deforestation and forest loss. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/deforestation

Per capita co₂ emissions. Our World in Data. (n.d.). https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita

Air pollution deaths as percentage of global disease burden. Our World in Data. (n.d.-a). https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/air-pollution-deaths-as-percentage-of-global-disease-burden?tab=table&country=~BRA

CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita). World Bank Open Data. (n.d.). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC