WORLDPROCESSOR:    108

TV Ownership

Multiply the number of daily TV deaths by the number of people
owning TV sets and subtract that number from the population. Most
nations would disappear on a daily basis.

003

97.4 % of the world's water is ocean water. 2 % is accounted for
by ice caps and glaciers, and about 0.6 % is ground water, which
constitutes the entire fresh water reserves on earth. Lake water
represents only 7 millionths of the world's water; clouds only 1
millionth, and river water 10% of a millionth.

H
H
T
H
      

5-5 (DAMAGED)
5
5-4
5-6 (DAMAGED)
      

ITALIAN
GLASS
ITALIAN
ITALIAN
      

These countries have one territorial condition in common: no
access to the world's oceans.  This has a fundamental impact on
economics, social behavior, and perspective on the world.  Many
of the republics of the former Soviet Union are landlocked.
Their recent independence has radically increased the number of
countries, that suffer this unique condition.

008

Countries identified by name are at the very bottom of the life
expectancy scale. The AIDS epidemic will further reduce life
expectancy on the African continent.

Japan Personal Income Equals 62 Poorest Nations

The combined personal income of the 120 million Japanese people
is equal to the combined personal income of the roughly 3.2
billion citizens of the 62 poorest nations, significantly more
than half of the world population.
            

019

In 1990, UNHCR, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, registered
20 million refugees, a number that increased to 27 million in
1995.  While the overall number of refugees has decreased
subsequently, the number of internally displaced people has
radically increased.  The widths of the arrows indicate the
relative amounts of refugees (1970-1980).

Japanese Economic Continent

If landmass equaled wealth and economic might, Japan would occupy
this much of the globe.

030

Between 1950 and 1986, annual carbon dioxide emissions have
tripled. The principal source of these emissions is fossil fuel
combustion, but natural gas flaring and cement production also
contributes to the rising level. Carbon dioxide is the major
cause of the Greenhouse Effect.
*updated to 2000 data

041

Night

The military objectives of the US Air Force Defense
Meteorological Satellite Program have created an aesthetic
byproduct — a composite photo of the planet, taken during
nighttime hours. More than 99% of these representations of actual
light sources are indications of human activity on the planet.
For example, this image includes more than a million man-made
fires, most of them in the Third World, chiefly propagated for
agricultural purposes. Population centers are easily identified;
however, the amount of light represented here is not necessarily
proportional to the population size. Imbalances arise due to
unequal electrical consumption. Japanese consume 15 times as much
electricity as Chinese per capita, and Americans consume 21/2
times more than Japanese do. This image also illustrates light
pollution, a condition only astronomers have complained about so
far.   

A Satellite's Blind Spots

The public service Landsat System has blind spots over territory
and time. However, personal satellites can soon be purchased for
about the price of a Mercedes, and space junk is increasingly
hard to track.

043

The question will not be what, but how to feed a population that
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.

045

Wittgenstein

The opening sentence of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus
logico-philosophicus.  "Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist"
("The world is everything that is the case").

Chernobyl Cloud

Red indicates the extent of the radiation cloud on April 27, just
after the accident at Chernobyl. Blue indicates its almost
worldwide distribution until the 6th of May.

056

Percentage of World Energy Consumption

Numerical percentages of world energy consumption are correlated
with bar graphs indicating population figures.  Japan, for
instance, consumes 15 times more energy per capita than China,
and the United States uses 2.5 times more energy per capita than
Japan.

059

Rain Forest Leftovers

Rain Forest Depletion: green indicates where rain forests still
exist - red where it has perished.

063

Major Population Centers/Population Distribution

The world's 6 billion people are by no means spread out equally
over the globe's territories — yet continental lines are easily
identifiable since people seem to prefer coastal regions for
settlements. More than half of the world's population lives on a
relatively small territory spreading from northern India to
China.

065

Beginning with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization
Mission to the Middle East in 1948, the UN has undertaken more
than 56 peacekeeping missions across the world, with varying
degrees of success. In 2003 14 missions were current. Almost 2000
peacekeepers lost their lives since 1948.       

The languages are not identified other than by their position
(where there are most commonly spoken). The size of the words is
proportional to the amount of speakers.

067

Red indicates countries where mines are in use; countries
identified with the letter "M" are major producers of land mines.

People Power

The scale of regions reflects the size of population.

Fault Lines and Earthquake Epicenters M>5 (larger than 5 on the
Richter-scale).

Hong Kong and The Passport Trade

In 1997, the British Crown Colony Hong Kong has become part of
the People's Republic of China — the majority of its current
citizens are not eligible to live in England despite their
British Passports. Those who prefer a second passport to mere
trust in the new authorities can buy one in these countries.
Minimum investments start at 25.000 — a US passport is most
expensive and difficult to obtain.93-3: Japan Only

Nuclear Have's and Have-not's

Not all countries that crave the power and prestige of nuclear
weapons have been able to master the technology and the supply of
uranium necessary. Shown are those who successfully build and
held on to their weapons.
*updated to include N. Korea

Foreign Aid

Foreign aid does not just go to individual countries; entire
regions often suffer conditions making them needy and susceptible
to foreign aid.

Wetlands

Wetlands" is the collective term for marshes, swamps, bogs, and
similar areas. About 75% of all endangered species are native to
the world's wetlands

More than 2000 nuclear bombs have been detonated worldwide since
1945. In 1963 the superpowers agreed to limit themselves to
underground testing. By then the atomic radiation in Europe had
increased to levels comparable to those caused by the Chernobyl
accident.

Shown are the few countries that did not for one reason or
another engage in military conflicts between 1945 and 2002.

Airplane Disasters

Most of the major airplane disasters occurred in the Northern
Hemisphere.  Shown are crashes with more than 200 victims.
      

Refugees account for 1% of the world population.  Most are parked
in UN camps without awareness or knowledge of each other’s
existence.  Connecting these refugee camps would result in this
refugee net. A Refugee Republic could be a trans-global,
experimental, supra-territorial state for refugees to represent
themselves worldwide.  Implementing the idea of an open society
and the ideals represented by the UN, it could become a model for
other nations.

Some company’s yearly gross income is larger than the entire GNP of a given country.

Forest Fires

In spring 1998 uncontrolled forest fires raged in the equatorial
regions. Airplanes crashed in Indonesia, Smoke plumes reached
across national borders into other countries and even continents.
One day the loss of forest the size of Belgium in Brazil was
reported. El Nino was generally blamed for the lack of rain.

Moody’s

Moody's Investor Service as well as Standard and Poor rate not
only corporations but countries as well.  Most institutional
investment firms have rules prohibiting them from buying
government bonds issued by countries with a low rating.  Only
blue-chip (Aaa=light color) and high to medium grade countries
(Aa-Baa3=dark) are considered investment grades, all other
countries (Ba1 to C) do not even show up on the investors' radar.

Soil Degradation

Soil degradation is brought on by several factors, mostly
predisposition for desertification, acid rain, need for fuelwood
and food needs which are beyond the soil's capacity to support.
This globe shows only areas where the population’s food needs
lead to overexploitation and subsequently to soil degradation.

Solar System

This globe representing the size of the sun shows the respective
size of the solar system's planets.  Most planets in other solar
systems have been just too small to be detected with current
technology .
The planets discovered so far are huge: up to 11 times the size
of Jupiter. Smaller ones, the size of earth, are not expected to
be found in the near future, even though there are no doubts that
they exist.

Arable land vs. population size: Some areas are particularly
endangered and more sensitive to ecological imbalance. Population
pressure, the scarcity of arable land, soil quality and climate
set strict limits to growth.

Carless Countries

Many industrialized nations have about half as many cars as
citizens.  Green overlaid countries have the least number of cars
per capita:  up to 10,000 inhabitants would have to share a
single motor vehicle.

Fuel Consumption (by nation)

The countries with the highest gasoline consumption are
positioned along a North-South (higher-lower) scale.

Auto Corporations Vs. Countries

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.

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).

Mobile (Phone) Society

Represented are countries in which less than 53.9%(world average)
of telephone subscibers are mobile phones.

Rainfall

As drawn according to rainfall, a picture of our “waterworld”
reveals contours that are subtly influenced by continental
masses, but not beholden geography in any way whatsoever. Darkest
regions receive on average more than 2000 millimeters of rain
annually while white regions receive less than 100 millimeters.

The river systems and drainage basins on every continent have
created watersheds of the world’s fresh water. Fueled by
precipitation, and directed by continental geography, watersheds
constitute the major reservoirs of fresh water and the channels
through which water flows to the ocean.

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.

Those countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol to reduce
the emission of greenhouse gases are appropriately colored green.
Remaining countries have either signed the protocol without
ratifying it, not signed it at all, or signed it and then reneged
on any intention of following its guidelines.

American and European nations and their empires are highlighted
to show the extent of Western dominance in 1920.  The rest of the
world falls into metaphorical darkness, being outside the scope
of Western powers.

At the height of the Cold War, the world’s major military powers
could easily be split into two camps: the Communist Bloc
designated with red and the Free World designated with blue.

Freedom of the Press

Most Free- cut out, Free- masked, Partly Free- unmasked, Not
Free- Black SOURCE: Freedom House

Birth Rates

Using HDI 2004 total fertility rate: Births/woman

Satellite Radio Broadcasting Footprints

Footprints of: World Space Channels on XM, AmeriStar, AfriStar,
AsiaStar

U.N. Peacekeepers

Nations contributing to UN peacekeeping operations

Non-Democratic States

Nations with political systems = one party rule, military
dictatorship, monarchy/theocracy, disordered or collapsed state.

Access To Drinking Water

% of population using improved drinking water sources over 80%-
source: UNICEF table 3

Rocket Launch Sites

Known sites of space rocket launches

Mononational States

Countries where the proportion of ethnic, racial, or national
minorities in the population is under 10%

Multilingual States

States w/more than one official language

Food Intervention

Countries experiencing food supply shortfalls and requiring
exceptional assistance  RE: World Food Program

U.S. Food Aid

Recipients of US bilateral food aid.  arrow proportional to aid
given (tonnes).

Agricultural Biodiversity

Areas of wild ancestral crops

Tobacco Cloud

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

Polynational States

Countries where the proportion of ethnic, racial, or national
minorities in the population is over 50%

Maternal Mortality Ratio

Maternal Mortality Ratio- more than 100/ 100,000 live births
(adjusted)

International Migrants as a Proportion of Total Population

International migrants as a proportion of total population over
5%

Stunted Children

Single black outlines define countries
where more than 2% of children under 5  suffer from stunted
growth.  Double black lines define countries where the prevalence
is more than 3%, and triple black lines where more than 4% of
children under 5 are stunted in growth.