Week 1: Mental Maps

2005 World Consumption Cartogram. mnn.com 9.29.10 [http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/blogs/types-of-environmental-impacts]

          I am an environmental science major and this map is very meaningful to me. It is a World Consumption Cartogram from 2005. It distorts the sizes of each country to show, relative to other countries, how much natural resources each country consumes on a per capita basis based on the 2005 Global Footprint Network. It comes as no surprise that the United States is stretched far beyond its normal means and other third world countries are extremely thinned. The peach colored countries are in an ecological deficit, the deeper progressive reds are in even more ecological deficit, meaning they are  consuming natural resources unsustainably. The beige neutral countries have no ecological deficit but neither do they have any negative ecological deficit (an ecological gain), their net ecological balance is 0. The green colored countries have a negative ecological deficit, which is positive, which means that they are producing more natural resources than they need. Needless to say, this map is very interesting to me, simply because the economics of ecological resources is intrinsically interesting to me. 

A Map of the Los Angeles Metro Green Line. Metro.net 9.29.2010 [http://www.metro.net/around/rail/green-line/

           This is a map of the Los Angeles Metro Green Line taken from Metro.net. It shows where the Green Line stops relative to LAX, and vaguely highlights where certain cities are. The stops are labeled with the street names and certain stops are specially labeled as they are transfer points to different lines. This map doesn't show it, but the Green Line travels along the 105 freeway and ends at the 605 freeway along with the 105 freeway. Though I suppose if one were to ride the Green Line, they wouldn't really need to know the freeways. This map isn't exactly interesting to me, but it is important to me because I endure an hour-long bus ride on the #6 Culver City Bus to reach the Aviation/LAX station then ride the Green Line all the way to the Norwalk Station to get home on some Fridays. 


 

Lightning Strike Density Map of the World. Modern Survival Blog. 9.29.2010 [http://modernsurvivalblog.com/weather-preparedness/lightning-strike-safety-preparedness/].

           This map is a Lightning Strike Density Map taken from ModernSurvivalBlog.com. It shows where and how often lightening strikes the earth. It shows that there's more lightning striking the earth at the lower latitudes than the higher latitudes and  either more recorded lightning or simply more lightning strikes occurring over the continents. The color legend on the right of the map shows what each specific color means in lightning strike density. I grew up in Southern California where lightning storms are somewhat sparse, and this past summer I vacationed in the Philippines where there were lightning storms every night. The lightning was amazing, so powerful and so quick. So, lightning has captivated me and therefore, I find this map interesting. I also find this map interesting because I don't understand why lightning strikes are concentrated over land as this map suggests; I believe that this map may be biased because lightning strikes may not be recorded over the ocean as diligently as they are recorded over land.