I’m proof reading plotters of our latest behemoth – the Illustrated Atlas of Wildlife – and came across these two beautiful and, I think, fascinating pie charts (I just commission the pictures, so most of the time I have no idea what their relevance is. Oddly, the text usually isn’t commissioned til all the art is in, so we work ‘blind’):
Individual organisms are grouped into populations of interbreeding or genetically similar individuals called species. The total number of living species is estimated to be between
10 million and 30 million, with most of these being microscopic lifeforms. Vertebrates amount to only 5 percent of all known animal species. There are at least twice as many species of fungi and six times as many species of plants.
Seriously astonishing.
And then there’s:
peripatetic sloth 
Most charts are boring and worthless. Those charts are interesting and worthy.
What I find interesting is actually how little groundwater there is and how fast we are mining it (at least in the US). What are we going to do when it is gone? The water wars are not that far away.
Mr Random – exactly. And pretty colours, too, non? 😉
hmh – yes, that does worry me, especially as I now live here in Australia where drought has been an increasing problem for the last 10 years and where groundwater and river systems have been massively depleted to irrigate vital farmland and provide water for growing cities. The Murray-Darling river basin has apparently reached the point of no return. Scary future.
Read a science fiction book called Dune. It’s one of our futures. The dry one.
I didn’t really look at the information in the charts … I just admired how they flowed gracefully downward like the Spanish Steps.
They’re not only pretty to look at, the information is easier to understand than other graphs and charts – in my brain anyway.
Mmmm… pie! I like the blueberry ones.
Mr Random – hmm, I have always associated Dune with a) 14 year old boys and b) bad acting by Sting. Perhaps I am wrong.
David – tsk tsk. But thank you for the admiration.
Jenny – I think so, too. I never was much of a chart or graph person.
Azahar – apple and blackberry for me, with cream. 😉
But as graphic designer, I love your pie charts!!!
Dave – thanks, glad you like them. But I should think God would have run out of patience with us – he gave the planet plenty of water, we’re just wasting it.
Quite the chart that i need….nice & simple