Introduction
Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants, fungi, etc.) that are vulnerable to endangerment soon. More frequent and intense drought, storms, heatwaves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans can directly harm all the species and their habitat. [source]
By using datasets provided by the UN, I hope to highlight the issue of an alarming increase in the number of threatened species.
Inspiration
I was listening to the 74th UNGA session and some of the world leaders were talking about climate change. It is good that we are having this discussion but we need to take it more seriously. It is already affecting everything around us. We are making other lives of other living organisms a hell. We are now used to seeing picture liking starving polar bears(Figure 1.) or turtles trapped in plastic (Figure 2.). With graphs and data, we can understand the gravity of this issue.
I have often seen complicated graphs on threatened species and climate change which can be hard to understand for all types of users. I wanted to create simple graphs which everyone can understand. I took the inspiration from Endangered Species International. The website shows the number of extinct species using simple bar charts.
Tools & Materials
Dataset: http://data.un.org/
OpenRefine: To clean the data
Tableau: To create graphs & charts
Methodology
I choose this dataset for two reasons:
- It included the number of threatened species from 2004, which can help me show an increase for over a decade.
- It has data for all the countries, which can help me identify the countries with an alarming serious number of threatened species.
Dataset downloaded from the UN had 7 columns. I cleaned the data to make it more useful and easy to understand. I removed sources, footnotes, and numbers assigned to each region. I converted value and year to numbers.
Figure 3. Data Improvements
Once the data was ready, I imported it into Tableau. Each of the graphs was created individually and compiled in one dashboard to allow help user to have a broader perspective on the issue.
The dashboard is divided into two sections:
- The rise in the total number of threatened species
- Countries with the highest number of threatened species
Results & Interpretation
1. The rise in the total number of threatened species
Every country/region has a count of threatened species (animals & plants) for the years 2004, 2010, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. There is a gap between the first three data points. To help users understand the graph better, I have shown all the years from 2004 to 2019 and a small dot on the line can indicate the data point. Initially, I used a flat red color but I realized that a yellow to red gradient will highlight the increase. I marked the last data point so that users can immediately see how many species are threatened at the moment. Currently, 50,970 species are at the brink of extinction.
1.1 The rise in the threatened species of animals and plants
Humans are more empathetic toward animals. I built a graph to show an increase in threatened species of animals and plants separately. I choose an area graph to clearly show that the greater number of animal species is near extinction. I group vertebrated and invertebrates and used total their number to show animals. I used a green color to represent plants and used red color for animals.
2. Countries with the highest number of threatened species
The purpose of this graph is to identify the countries with the highest number of threatened species in 2018-2019. I apply a filter on years to only show data between 2018 and 2019. I plotted total of these two years for each country. I sorted the countries in descending order. I selected the top six countries.
Ecuador has a significantly high number of threatened species. To highlight that information I colored Ecuador with red and the rest of the countries with grey.
2.1 Countries with the highest number of threatened species of animals
Keeping it consistent with the first section, I decided to create another graph for countries with the highest number of threatened species of animals. For this graph, I added an additional filter to remove plants. I used a stacked bar to present types of animals.
The countries were different from the previous graph. The USA has the highest number of threatened species of animals. I also provided additional information on the types of animals. The graph indicates that Mexico has the highest number of threatened species of vertebrates. I used red and orange from the theme and provided a legend for this graph.
Reflections & Future Direction
Tableau is very easy to use the tool. I enjoyed working with it. Cleaning the data with OpenRefine not only added clarity to it but it also helped me understand it. Applying filters and creating categories was easy. I tried to keep my graphs simple and clean to help everyone understand the issue. I am satisfied with the end result.
For the future, I would like to use an actual map to show the severity of this issue in different regions of the world. It will also be great if a comparison can be between an increase in industrialization and a threat to the species.
With these graphs, I hope I was able to highlight the alarming situation we all are facing right now. We need to take action before its too late.
