Global warming is a very popular and serious topic of discussion in the present day. \u00a0Excluding a select few individuals, people are worried about how many resources we consume, and how that consumption affects the planet. \u00a0This topic is especially important to the United States of America, considering the country’s recent decision to opt out of the Paris Agreement. \u00a0With this dramatic turn of events, one has to wonder how much does the United States contribute to pollution? \u00a0And how does that correlate with the land we use? \u00a0The best way to showcase the answers to these questions is on a map.<\/p>\n
The map-generating website\u00a0Carto<\/a>\u00a0was the main tool used for the visualization of this presentation. \u00a0The datasets came directly from\u00a0The United States Census of Geography and Environment<\/a>, specifically the data regarding total land usage and total toxic emissions by state. \u00a0Since the Land Usage dataset did not include Washington DC, Alaska, Hawaii, or the island\u00a0territories, the data was cleaned and modified so that both datasets matched each other.<\/p>\n The goal behind this presentation was to show a possible correlation between land usage and toxic emissions. \u00a0To illustrate this, one layer was dedicated to each dataset, and the opacity on the toxic emissions layer was reduced. \u00a0Specific toxic emissions (such as air emissions, oil spills, or on-site disposal) could be brought up by clicking individual states. \u00a0On the right, three histograms were made to showcase specific uses for land, whether it be forest land, range land, or cropland.<\/p>\n The results of the presentation mostly line up with expectations, with a few surprises as shown below:<\/p>\n [iframe width=”100%” height=”520″ frameborder=”0″ src=”https:\/\/bengel4.carto.com\/builder\/85f16932-ee19-45f7-a7d1-25d0a4f612ae\/embed” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen][\/iframe]<\/p>\n The darker areas on the map, such as Texas and Nevada, show the most amount of land usage as well as the most toxic emissions. \u00a0This is to be expected, as Texas is he largest state in the Union boasting a whole host of energy-producing businesses. \u00a0However, other densely-populated areas like New York don’t show similar emission levels. \u00a0If anything, New York and South Carolina are on the low end of the toxic emissions scale. \u00a0It’s possible that this is due to land usage being different in these states. \u00a0For example, New York does not have as much farmland as Texas, thus it doesn’t produce as much farm-related waste.<\/p>\n The histograms also contain troubling implications regarding land usage. \u00a0There are very few areas in the United States with forests, farms, or ranges. \u00a0Agriculture and nature appear to have given way for industrialization, although this is only a hypothesis given the current data. \u00a0Oddly enough, that dataset on land usage did not include cities, mines, or oil fields. \u00a0As such, this correlation is implied, but nothing more than that.<\/p>\n As it stands, the datasets used for this map, while thorough in some areas, can be considered incomplete. \u00a0Land usage statistics from Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington DC\u00a0would contribute to a more complete picture of the environment situation of the country. \u00a0Other forms of land usage, such as land used for mines and oil fields, would better fit the dataset regarding toxic emissions. \u00a0But since this data is absent from the US Census, more research on this subject will have to be conducted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction Global warming is a very popular and serious topic of discussion in the present day. \u00a0Excluding a select few individuals, people are worried about how many resources we consume, and how that consumption affects the planet. \u00a0This topic is especially important to the United States of America, considering the country’s recent decision to opt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-visualization"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paBdcV-1LP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6809"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Methods<\/h2>\n
Results<\/h2>\n
Moving Forward<\/h2>\n