[286-6] Patents

This globe here plots the total amount of patents granted worldwide,
beginning in 1883 with just under 50,000, continuing to 2005 on a
rapid climb towards 1.5 million according to statistics published by
WIPO - the World Intellectual Property Organization. Geographic
regions where countries offer environments conducive to fostering
innovation are represented by topography.
Almost half of the 5.6 million patents in force in 2005 are owned by
applicants from Japan and the US.

[286] Patents

[286-3] Patents

This globe here plots the total amount of patents granted worldwide, beginning in 1883 with just under 50,000, hitting 650,000 in 1993 (near the North Pole), and (shifting the scale to the southern hemisphere) continuing to 2002 on a rapid climb towards 1 million. Geographic regions where countries offer environments conducive to fostering innovation are represented by topography. Additionally, nations where residents are granted an average of 500 or more US patents per year are called out in red by their respective averages in the years after 2000.

[218] Production Capacity: Bikes vs. Cars

Surging car production slowed down as a result of oil price increases and environmental awareness in the first half of the 1970s. Meanwhile, the demand for bicycles boomed as incomes rose rapidly in China. In 1980, twice as many bicycles as cars were produced; today, the ratio has almost tripled.

[215] “Car” in 80 Languages

Although it’s a modern invention and a modern word, at least 80 languages have a word for “car”. The Native American tribes of Blackfoot and Hopi have a word for it, and even the car-less Zulu and Ethiopian nations give the four-wheeled wonder a name.

[216] Superhighway to the Future

A 24-lane superhighway packed bumper to bumper would have to circle the globe 1.8 times to accommodate the world’s 440 million cars in 2000. By the year 2030, however, the superhighway to the future would have to circle the globe 4.25 times to accommodate the projected1020 million cars at that date. A hypothethical parking lot to accommodate this car population would cover all of Belgium.

[212] Fuel Efficiency Timeline

1990 represents the 100% level for a number of different fuel efficiency correlatives. German fuel efficiency is indicated in blue; world efficiency in green; fuel consumption in yellow; oil price per barrel in orange; and car population in black. In all it becomes apparent that even as fuel efficiency increases, car population and fuel consumption increases easily offset any fuel conservation.

[202] Car Populations

Every small dot represents 100.000 to 1 million cars, larger dots 1 to 2 million.

[206] German Car Production

If each car produced in Germany in 1998 were to equal 1 square kilometer, then different-sized “Germanies” would result in the present globe. Here the six major car producers assimilate continents and countries of their own.

[200] VW –World

Production sites of companies belonging to the Volkswagen Group. The extension of this network through the recent acquisition of the heavy truck manufacturer Scania, with production sites all over Scandinavia as well as in Holland, Poland, France and South America, is not yet shown on this globe.

[201] Manufacturing Work Forces

The respective sizes of landmass in this geography of industrial work forces are informed by the amount of industrial workers in each country. In Germany every 7th job is directly or indirectly car-related.

[195] Road Density

Five categories of miles of road per square mile of territory are shown: [0-0,1] [0,0,5] [0,5-0,9] [0,9-2] [2 and above]. Monaco statistically has the highest percentage: up to 1/3 of its territory is paved.

[197] Five Largest Car Makers and Market Shares

[189] G8

The group of the 8 major industrialized nations shares the common objective of shaping world economics. Their claim to leadership is based on a defacto control of 2/3 of the world economy. The G77, founded in 1964 to represent the poorer states, has now 133 member states and is largely unknown.

[170-2] Solar System

[156] Global Trade Currents

Divided into six major trading areas, global trade currents vary widely between different regions and partners. Each millimeter in arrow width represents $10 billion in yearly trade. The amount of global trade has quintupled since 1975, thus reinforcing notions of a “global” economy.

[100-2] Balance of Trade 2003

Countries in black have a positive trade balance -- the red ones have a negative one.

[84] Fault Lines

[70] Refugee Republic

Dotting the globe, the estimated 47 million refugees account for 1% of the world population. If it were possible for refugees to pack and take with them a proportional part of their country (measured at the world-wide average of approximately 37 people per square kilometer) it would piece together into a state the size of France, Germany, England and Italy combined (or more than twice the size of Texas)
The width of the arrows indicates the relative amount of refugees (1970/80s)

[45-2] Wittgenstein

[13] Population Volume

Size of white rectangle equals size of population. The question will not be what, but how to feed a population which will exceed 10 billion in the next century. Since 1985, due to agricultural engineering advances, the earth has yielded more food than we can possibly consume; yet geopolitical structures continue to leave millions of people dying of starvation.

[319] Submarine Fiberoptic Network

The width of lines represents transmission capacity.

[283] Carbon Emissions Trading

Indicated are countries that have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and are thus eligible for participation in carbon emissions trading. Countries emitting levels of CO2 over 100,000 Gg (gigagrams) are designated by lengths of black bars corresponding to their emission levels. Thick bars indicate twice the amount thin bars do.

[279] First Female Parliamentarian

The red line on this globe traces temporally, country by country, the first election of a female to parliament following the precedent set by Finland in 1907 through to 1946 when the first female parliamentarian in Japan was elected to office.

[265] Maternal Mortality Ratio

Countries where the maternal mortality ratio is more than 100 per 100,000 live births.

[263] Tobacco Cloud

Deaths from tobacco use as a percentage of total deaths among men over 35 years exceeds 20%.

[251] Birth Rates

The fertility rate of each country in the 1995 to 2000 period is designated by a visually scaled number indicating the average births per woman during their life span. The higher the birth rate, the higher and visually larger the number.

[251-5] Birth Rates

The fertility rate of each country is designated by a visually scaled number indicating the average births per woman during their life span. The higher the birth rate, the higher and visually larger the number. Countries with stagnant or negative population growth (i.e. less than 2.2 births) are not noted. "2" represents between 2.2 and 2.5 births, "3" represents 2.6 to 3.5, etc.

[250-2] Freedom of the Press

Freedom of the press across the globe is ranked in 4 tiers of brightness] Most Free, Free, Partly Free and Not Free, with the nations where press is afforded the most freedom of reportage shining brightest, and Not Free countries entirely blacked out. Number indicate the amounts of impediments - the lower the number the better.

[250] Freedom of the Press

Freedom of the press across the globe is ranked in 4 tiers of brightness] Most Free, Free, Partly Free and Not Free, with the nations where press is afforded the most freedom of reportage shining brightest, and Not Free countries entirely blacked out.

[246-2] 40 Biggest Cities

As of 2004, more than half of the world's population is living in cities.

[241] 3 Hour US Air Force Range

The vast majority of the earth's territory can be reached by American jets within 3 hours due to a global network of air-bases and aircraft carriers.

[235] Prison Populations

The U.S. has recently usurped from Russia the dubious honor of highest rate of incarceration - almost 700. The number of inmates per 100,000 of the national population is represented for each country. 142 is the world average.

[231] DNA Traces

Population geneticists have traced the human family tree to an ancestral homo sapiens community of only 2000 breeding individuals living in Africa, which began splitting up approximately 144,000 years ago and migrating to Asia and Europe before the Americas. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA passed from mother to child have identified only one female (a mitochondrial “Eve”) at the root of the mDNA family tree represented by orange lines; other lineages fell extinct. Y chromosome sequences passed from father to son are represented by green lines and go back to a single chromosonal “Adam.” It is believed that 10 principle branches in the Y chromosome tree may correspond to the world’s major language groups.

[227] Non-Competitive Elections

Highlighted areas indicate those countries that are democratic in name only. Dictatorships, Communist states, and military states either ban popular elections, disregard their results, or hand-pick the candidates. Floundering or corrupt representative democracies often do no better at generating competitive elections.

[225-3] Terrorism

Darkened areas indicate presence of terrorist groups. Underlined groups are active in more than one country, underscoring their multinational and transnational character and ambition.

[224] World Average Temperature

The equator equals the average temperature at the beginning of the 20th century. For the last 1 million years the average temperature of the world has fluctuated

[223] Mobile Phone Society

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Represented are countries in which more than 20% of telephones are mobile phones. Cambodia has the highest percentage. It has more mobile phone (65%) than land lines. the value of the copper content of a few miles of telephone cable can feed a family for a few weeks. Cambodia, Chad, Congo and Afghanistan had only 1 telephone line per 1000 people before 2000.

[221-3] Internet Users

The size of the respective national Internet top-level domain code represents the amount of users.
Darker print indicates a higher percentage of the population with Internet access. In some countries of the Middle East the amount of users have doubled within a 2 year period.

[221] Internet Users

Germany (.de) had about 15 million Internet users in the beginning of 2000. The size of the respective national Internet top-level domain code represents the amount of users. Government surveillance of Internet communication is routinely practiced in several countries (.de, .sg, .cn).

[219] Beyond Statistics

[217] Jam 2000: 72x Around the World

If all the cars in the world were placed end to end they would circle the globe 72 times.

[214] Car-Producing Countries (cmyk +rgb)

Borders of all car-producing countries are highlighted even if no more than 30 (Mozambique) or 50 (Ethiopia) cars are made. Each dot represents a yearly production volume of 100.000 vehicles.

[211] “Bad Carma”

Traveling the roads of countries with a red cross is dangerous. The larger the cross, the higher the chance to continue any given trip in an ambulance and end up in a hospital or graveyard.

[207] Auto Worker Salaries Around the World

In selected countries, industrial workers earn salaries indicated by white lines leading to a scale of salaries in US dollars. Their counterparts in the automotive industry earn significantly more, as represented by the black lines leading to higher relative levels. At $37.68per hour, German car workers earned more in 1997 than any other industrial or automotive workers in the survey did.

[199] Auto Corporations vs. Countries (revision)

Car companies are among the largest and most powerful companies of the world, rivaling entire states in economic might. Countries and groups of countries are re-named with companies whose gross income equals their GDP in 1999.