[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.