This is a new blog for Gapminder World, the site lets you explore a changing world from your own computer. Gapminder World is powered by Trendalyzer, a software produced by Gapminder (and aquired by Google in March 2007) that lets you look at a number of indicators of Human Development in a way that is easy to understand and follow.
In this blog we will keep you updated on when changes are made, when new indicators have been added as well as other news such as software development or development on data availability.
Just a note of congratulations for bringing to the general populous what I believe will be [and is] some the most significant evidence-based planning tools ever developed.
More power to you all.
B.
Greenhouse Gas Emission by Country
Gapminder,
I’m not sure where to post this and I strongly suspect that this is not the right place however, I don’t know where else to post it.
In the news recently was a report that China had overtaken the US in the emission of greenhouse gases. And I wanted to try to verify this report using Gapminder. At first it appeared that the “CO2 emissions (kg per 2005 PPP $ of GDP)” indicator would be appropriate however it went down with time which was not reasonable.
What does “CO2 emissions (kg per 2005 PPP $ of GDP)” indicator mean? Looking at the raw data was not helpful since both the About and Footnotes sections were empty. Furthermore, going to the source data website (http://go.worldbank.org/U0FSM7AQ40)didn‘t work for me. It might have been there but I couldn’t find it.
Is there an indicator which is proportional to the entire CO2 emission by a country?
Where should I post this kind of question? Alternatively, where can I look up this kind of information?
Thank you for any help,
Humbaba3000BC
(please don’t flame me, I’m doing my best)
Dear Humbaba3000BC,
Thanks for your interest in Gapminder. The indicator you mentioned, CO2 emissions (kg per 2005 PPP $ of GDP) is a measure of the carbon emissions efficiency of economic output. In other words, it measures how many units of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere for every dollar of economic output (measured in a way that adjusts for inflation and differences in price levels). We will soon add more detailed explanations to our data. The link you mentioned will take you to the World Bank website but unfortunately they do not make available the definition for this indicator. Instead, please go to http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Metadata.aspx?IndicatorId=0&SeriesId=648 for a detailed explanation.
On the other hand, to answer the question whether China has overtaken the United States you will need to look at total CO2 emissions. These data have just been added to Gapminder World and can be viewed at: http://tinyurl.com/6c6mpl
In the graph I just linked to, the size of the bubble represents total emission. These data, which go until 2004, show that China’s total emissions are closing in on those of the United States. Some sources say that China’s emissions have since passed those of the United States, but comparable data for the whole world are not yet available. But on current trends China will pass the United States within the next decade, if not sooner.
Please also note that China’s per capita emissions, seen on the y axis in the graph, are still several times lower than those of the United States.
Hope this is helpful.
Thanks,
Claes
Claes,
Thank you for your detailed response. I appreciate your time and effort. It cleared up my confusion about the “CO2 emissions (kg per 2005 PPP $ of GDP)” and allowed me to evaluate the news saying about China overtaking the US in terms of CO2 emissions.
I consider Gapminder one of the most valuable tools on the Internet and show it to anyone who has interest in the environment, world health, economics, etc.. It has a lot of similarities to SpotFire which I used in my professional life before I retired.
Total GDP
Many of the current economic indicators are expressed as a fraction of the GDP. Could you consider adding this as an indicator? Doing so would make it much easier to evaluate parameters such as “Military expenditure (% of GDP).”
Again, thank you and keep up the good work,
Humbaba3000BC
Dear Humbaba3000BC,
The indicator you are looking for might be “Total income” (which you find under the heading “Economy”. Here is a link to one graph using the indicator:
http://tinyurl.com/5pgsrt
Hope this is helpful,
Mattias, Gapminder