This map is part of a series of cartograms in which the
actual geography is distorted in order to demonstrate information about the countries shown. In this case, the point made is that of population, with each country’s size ‘weighted’ to reflect the size of its population. The discrepancies between your average standard world map and this one are obvious – obviousness being a good indicator of how good a map is. For example: on a normal world map, Australia (7,7 million sq. km) would dwarf Indonesia (1,9 million sq. km). Yet the opposite happens here. Oz might be big, but it’s a Big Empty, holding no more than 20,5 million people (2006 est.) Meanwhile, the emerald archipelago to Australia’s Near North is teeming with 223 million people (2005 est.), enough to fill eleven Australias. That imbalance is reflected well in this map. Australia almost drowns in the ocean, just like that other sparsely populated ‘western’ outpost in the far east, New Zealand.
A similar reversal of roles exists between Russia (17 million sq. km, 142 million inhabitants) and China (9,6 million sq. km, 1,3 billion inhabitants). The population map reduces Russia to a thin sliver of land, insignificant compared to the giant that is China, which dwarfs just about any country far or close by, except India. Together, these two Asian countries account for fully one third of the world’s population. Incidentally, the number of Indians is slated to surpass China’s population later this century.
The map similarly illustrates Canada’s relationship with its ‘bigger’ neighbour to the south. Elsewhere, regional dominances become more apparent also. Ethiopia, currently actively supporting one side in the Somali civil war (if one can call it that) dominates eastern Africa, Nigeria is by far the larger country of western Africa – in fact, the largest of all of Africa, larger than Sudan, which is huge and empty. The preliminary results of last year’s Nigerian census seem to indicate a population of about 140 million people, indeed surpassing by far Africa’s second most populous nation, Egypt.
This map also allows for quick ‘guesstimates’ of which countries have an equally large population. The matches can be instructive and surprising. France and Egypt seem about the same size, as are Germany and Ethiopia. Ireland is more or less the same size as Haiti.
Several visitors to this blog pointed me to this series of ‘distorted’ maps, which are the result of a collaboration between the universities of Sheffield (UK) and Michigan (US) and can be seen at
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=439315&in_page_id=1811Fonte:
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/page/3/01. A palavra “actual” (destacada no texto), poderia ser traduzida neste texto como:
a) atual
b) normal
c) real
d) organizada
e) autoral
02. A partir da leitura do texto, é possível afirmar que:a) o mapa mencionado representa como os países ficarão após o aquecimento global
b) o mapa mencionado representa os países de acordo com sua riqueza.
c) o mapa mencionado representa como o mundo era há 7,7 milhões de anos.
d) o mapa mencionado representa o tamanho populacional de cada país.
e) o mapa mencionado representa a dívida externa de cada país.
03. O título ideal para o texto acima é:a) The Truth About Maps During Global Warming.
b) A Cartogram Of The World’s Population.
c) The World Debts According To The IMF.
d) Aids In Africa and South America.
e) The Difference in Size Between Rich and Poor countries
04. Segundo o texto:a) Australia e Russia diminuiriam de tamanho em relação à Indonésia e China respectivamente.
b) o Egito é o pais mais populoso da Àfrica.
c) a África concentra o maior número de casos de AIDS.
d) o aquecimento global forçará mudanças nos mapas como hoje conhecemos.
e) os paises da América do Sul tem mais chances do que os da África em pagar suas dividas externas.
05. Qual dos mapas abaixo melhor representa o texto lido? (clique na imagem para ver melhor)a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
5- O texto acima foi tirado de um blog. Marque a alternativa que representa um comentário feito para este artigo:a) There’s a classic movie called Comanche Territory about the attempt by white settlers and silver miners to move into the Comancheria in defiance of federal treaty, only to be thwarted by a young Jim Bowie (Macdonald Carey). I’m not quite sure how much of the story is fictional. Made in 1950, it is one of the first Hollywood movies to show the Indians in a largely favorable light.
Comment by
Peter — May 14, 2007
b) Very revealing - I’ve never seen a map change its meaning so effectively with simple change of orientation. Now, what about that part of Austria that’s shaded red - am I missing something?
Comment by
saturn5 — April 15, 2007
c) Hi, The map is very interesting.
Everything anyone does to make the Universe more understandable, and in an easy relevant way, is needed in this overly-rushed, non-technically oriented society.
However, it is a foundational piece of information, needed to understand our Neighborhood, so that gives it merit, but I would like to see the same done for the Near-Earth Objects and asteroids which could impact Earth.
Best to all — Em
Comment by
em — April 11, 2007
d) Religious literalists, I think, tend to believe that the earth was created more than two thousand years ago. Christian fundamentalists, for instance, hold that the Earth did in fact exist when Christ walked on it.
Comment by Sartorius — April 3, 2007
e) I’m a recent visitor to your blog and will make this a daily stop as I cruise around the web.
Today’s map is an excellent lesson on the world’s population. It’s one thing to hear population numbers read, but to see it visually is powerful. For example, the true difference between Russia, China and India.
I’ve written a blog entry on my site (http://sften.blogspot.com) telling my readers to come visit your site. I think they’ll really enjoy it.
Neil McDonnell, PMP
Comment by
Neil McDonnell — March 31, 2007
that's all, folks!!
teacher Pyta
