Assignment One

                                     

This is a cartogram representing the world's population in 2013. I think this map is very suitable for showing the dramatic differences in population around the world. For instance, India is very large, as well as China due to their large populations. I wonder why Alaska is still fairly big for the population it has - probably the the ratio of the cartogram aspect and Alaska's large earth cover. Canada however, is one of the smallest countries in ratio, signaling the very low population. I wonder why there is not a color legend on this map that explains the differing colors. It appears they are similarly color coded due to continents.

                                       

This map shows the deforestation that is happening across the world. I am assuming this map is fairly current and the time span is from the beginning of time. Perhaps the author of the map should've included this information. It is interesting to see where the net loss of forest is, however I thought it would be much more apparent, especially in the Amazon rain forest. It is also surprising that the net gain of forest is pretty large in Alaska, as I have not hear of many reforesting projects happening in the middle of Alaska. This makes me question the credibility of this map. It also seems like there would be more current forest cover in the continental United States. This leads me to wonder, perhaps this map was constructed for lumber companies perhaps to show the "abundant" amount of current forest still available?


 

This map depicts the countries in the world that are undernourished. As one would suspect, the most undernourished area is Africa. However, there are also problem areas in southwest Asia and Central America. Although not stated, there is a clear correlation between undernourished countries and countries that may be in poverty. However, most likely, not all countries in poverty are undernourished because some areas are bountiful with food resources, while others are not. It is apparent that the Northern Hemisphere has much less levels of undernourishment, while the majority of undernourishment occurs in the Southern Hemisphere.