Sources: Headings/Goals

“Unless we change our direction we will end up where we are heading.”
— Chinese proverb

Sources: Level 1 Spaceship Earth

“Perspective is more important than IQ.”

— Nicholas Negroponte, former head of MIT Media Lab.

“The best way of understanding a system is to understand the system it fits into."”

— Howard Odum, ecologist

“We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.”

—R. Buckminster Fuller, designer, philosopher

Sources: Level 2 Life Support Systems

  • Total Energy Coming Into Earth Each Day From Sun: NASA "Solar Radiation and Earth System http://edmall.gsfc.nasa.gov/inv99Project.Site/Pages/science-briefs/ed-stickler/ed-irradiance.html>
  • Rainfall (entire Earth surface) today: 1050 millimeters per year; 88 millimeters per month; Pidwirny, M. (2006). "Global Distribution of Precipitation". Fundamentals of Physical Geography, 2nd Edition. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/8g.html
  • Sea Ice Mass: NASA, Earth's Vital Signs, http://climate.nasa.gov/
  • C02: NASA, Earth's Vital Signs, http://climate.nasa.gov/
  • Sea Level: NASA, Earth's Vital Signs, http://climate.nasa.gov/
  • Global Temperature: NASA, Earth's Vital Signs, http://climate.nasa.gov/
  • Ozone Hole: NASA, Earth's Vital Signs, http://climate.nasa.gov/
  • Lightening Strikes: John E. Oliver (2005). Encyclopedia of World Climatology. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ISBN 978-1-4020-3264-6.; "Annual Lightning Flash Rate". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Breed, Dan and Hensen, Bob, UCAR Communications "Lightning." http://www.ucar.edu/communications/infopack/lightning/faq.html Last Updated: 5 April 2000; 100/second; Bryson, Bill, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Random House, NY 2003 p.260
  • Number of Thunderstorms Right Now on Earth: 40,000/day; 1,800 right now; NOAA "Thunderstorm Basics." http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/tstorm/tst_basics.html Last Updated: 15, October 2006; Bryson, Bill, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Random House, NY 2003 p.260
  • Carbon Added to Atmosphere: NASA, Earth's Vital Signs, http://climate.nasa.gov/
  • Topsoil Eroded From World Croplands: 75 billion tons of soil per year; costs the world about $400 billion per year, or approximately $70 per person per year. USDA. Land Degradation: An overview by H. ESWARAN, R. LAL and P. F. REICH; http://soils.usda.gov/use/worldsoils/papers/land-degradation-overview.html
  • Desert Land Formed by Mismanagement: More than 12 million hectares of productive land are lost due to desertification every year, (46,332 sq/ miles; 127/day; 3,805 sq meters/sec.) UN Convention to Combat Desertification. http://www.unccd.int/media/pressrel/showpressrel.php?pr=press19_09_11 Also: The Earth’s land surface is drier overall than it was in the early part of the 20th century. Dry area coverage has been growing at a rate of 1.74 percent per decade since the early 1980s. Dai, A. “Characteristics and trends in various forms of the Palmer Drought Severity Index during 1900-2008.” Journal of Geophysical Research 116 (2011).
  • Earthquakes This Year (2.0 to 3.4 Richter scale): Dobson, Ken; Holman, John; Roberts, Michael. Physical Science, p.713. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 2006.
  • Earthquakes This Year (3.5 to 4.2 Richter scale): Dobson, Ken; Holman, John; Roberts, Michael. Physical Science, p.713. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 2006.
  • Earthquakes This Year (4.9 to 5.4 Richter scale): Dobson, Ken; Holman, John; Roberts, Michael. Physical Science, p.713. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 2006.
  • Earthquakes This Year (5.5 to 6.1): Dobson, Ken; Holman, John; Roberts, Michael. Physical Science, p.713. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 2006.
  • Earthquakes This Year (6.2-6.9): Dobson, Ken; Holman, John; Roberts, Michael. Physical Science, p.713. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 2006.
  • Earthquakes This Year (7.0 to 7.9): Dobson, Ken; Holman, John; Roberts, Michael. Physical Science, p.713. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 2006.
  • Human Population: United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision Population Database, electronic database: http://esa.un.org/unpp, updated 11 March 2009
  • Forest Lost: UNEP, Our Planet Nature at Your Service, 2011. Chart: World Bank 2011.
  • Land lost to urbanization: 29,500 square miles/76,405 square kilometers. "Cities to Grab Lands Equaling Size of Mongolia In Next 20 Years", ScienceDaily Sep. 15, 2011, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110915163955.htm Also: United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) 2011.http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=510&nr=462&menu=20

Sources: Level 3 Alarms

  • Hungry, Malnourished: U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), "Global Hunger Declining, but Still Unacceptably High," policy brief (Rome, September 2010) and FAOSTAT.
  • Overweight Adultd: 1.5 billion adults, 20 and older, are overweight. (43 million children under the age of 5 are overweight.) WHO, Obesity and Overweight Fact sheet # 311. March, 2011. The meter assumes this figure is rising at a rate of one person every 10 seconds.
  • Obese: 200 million men and 300 million women are obese. WHO, Obesity and Overweight Fact sheet # 311. March, 2011. The meter assumes this figure is rising at a rate of one person every 10 seconds.
  • Adults Dying as Result of Overweight and Obesity: 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese— the fifth leading cause of global dealths. WHO, Obesity and Overweight Fact sheet # 311. March, 2011.
  • Deaths: World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, United Nations Population Division; US Census Bureau; http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2004/VanessaChambers.shtml
  • Obesity: 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese— the fifth leading cause of global dealths. WHO, Obesity and Overweight Fact sheet # 311. March, 2011.
  • Deaths: World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, United Nations Population Division; US Census Bureau; http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2004/VanessaChambers.shtml
  • Food Lost or Wasted: According to the UN FAO, the figure is 3.56 tons/day. (Global Food Loss and Food Waste, p. 4. FAO, 2011.) According to Richard Dobbs, Jeremy Oppenheim, and Fraser Thompson, Mobilizing for a resource revolution, Mckinsey Global Institute, 2012, the amount is 10 million tons per day. Until this discrepancy is resolved, we are going with the FAO figure. My assumption is that the FAO figure is based on "the edible parts of food produced for human consumption" and the McKinsey report is based on total production.
  • Deaths: World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, United Nations Population Division
  • Population Living Slums: 827 million pople live in slums. Keeping Track of Our Changing Environment, UNEP 2011. (Note: A slum household is defined as a group of individuals living under the same roof lacking one or more of these conditions: access to improved water; access to improved sanitation; sufficient-living area; durability of housing; security of tenure.)
  • People Without Access to Clean Water: 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies. World Health Organization. Safer Water, Better Health: Costs, benefits, and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2008/9789241596435_eng.pdf
  • People Without Access to Sanitation: 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, including 1.2 billion people who have no facilities at all. Lack of sanitation is the world’s biggest cause of infection. WHO, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2008/pr23/en/index.html
  • People Without Access to Electricity: IEA. 2010. Projected Costs of Generating Electricity. Paris: International Energy Agency, Nuclear Energy Agency, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/database_electricity10/electricity_database_web_2010.htm
  • Forest Lost this year: 13 million hectares (50,193 square miles). UNEP, Keeping Treack of Our Changing Environment, p. 37. 2011; Also: UNEP, Our Planet Nature at Your Service, 2011
  • Forests planted the year: 4.6 million hectares (17,760 square miles) which is 7% of the world's total planted forests (265 million hectares). UNEP, Keeping Treack of Our Changing Environment, p. 39. 2011.
  • Land Lost to Urbanization: 2.89 million hectares per year. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=510&nr=462&menu=20
  • Forced to Flee Home Due to Natural Disasters: 42 million in 2010. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. http://www.internaldisplacement.org/8025708F004BE3B1/(httpInfoFiles)/
    15D7ACEC7ED1836EC12578A7002B9B8A/$file/IDMC_natural-disasters_2009-2010.pdf
  • Number of Life Forms: http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/FelixNisimov.shtml; John Lloyd (Topic Editor) "Biodiversity". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth December 28, 2009; Last revised Date October 26, 2010]
  • Sea Ice Mass: NASA, Earth's Vital Signs, http://climate.nasa.gov/
  • CO2: NASA, Earth's Vital Signs, http://climate.nasa.gov/
  • Sea Level: NASA, Earth's Vital Signs, http://climate.nasa.gov/
  • Global Temperature: NASA, Earth's Vital Signs, http://climate.nasa.gov/
  • Ozone Hole: "Significant Ozone Hole Remains Over Antarctica", Science Daily, Oct. 20, 2011, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111020145106.htm Also: NASA, Earth's Vital Signs, http://climate.nasa.gov/
  • Carbon Added to Atmosphere: 29.5 billionn tons of C02; UNEP Yearbook, 2011, Key Environmental Indicators
  • Topsoil Eroded: 25 billion tons per year.FAO, Restoring the land http://www.fao.org/docrep/u8480e/U8480E0D.HTM
  • Desert Land Formed by Mismanagement: More than 12 million hectares of productive land are lost due to desertification every year, (46,332 sq/ miles; 127/day; 3,805 sq meters/sec.) UN Convention to Combat Desertification http://www.unccd.int/media/pressrel/showpressrel.php?pr=press19_09_11
  • Earthquakes: Dobson, Ken; Holman, John; Roberts, Michael. Physical Science, p.713. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 2006.
  • Human population dying in wars: 58,970 in 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_military_conflicts Also: 50,000 total in 2010. World Bank, World Development Report 2011
  • Civil Wars right now: 10 in 2010. World Bank, World Development Report 2011
  • Military Expenditures: $1.620 trillion in 2010. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) 2011. SIPRI Military Expenditure Database 2011, http://milexdata.sipri.org
  • Number of Languages in World: 6,909, SIL International (formerly the Summer Institute of Linguistics) Languages of the World (ISBN 0883128152)
  • Endangered Languages: 3,074, UNESCO, Institute for Statistics.
  • Killed in Traffic Accidents: 1.2 million last year. Science Magazine, May 6, 2011 p. 657
  • Injured in Traffic Accidents: 50 million last year. Science Magazine, May 6, 2011 p. 657
  • Maternal Deaths: 345,000 total in world last year. U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA)
  • Children Under 5 Who Died From Preventable Causes: 7.6 million in 2010. http://www.unicef.org/media/files/Child_Mortality_Report_2011_Final.pdf
  • Human Waste Added to Oceans: 20 billion tons per year. Robert Costanza, John Cumberland, Herman Daly, Robert Goodland, Richard Norgaard, An Introduction to Ecological Economics http://www.eoearth.org/article/An_Introduction_to_Ecological_Economics:_Chapter_1
  • Cost of Violence to Global Economy: $8.1 trillion per yea. rWorld Peace Index, http://www.visionofhumanity.org/info-center/global-peace-index-2011/
  • People Dying From Water-Related Diseases: 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease. World Health Organization. Safer Water, Better Health: Costs, benefits, and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2008/9789241596435_eng.pdf
  • Chart: Cost of Violence: World Bank, Global Monitoring Report 2011, p.30. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGLOMONREP2011/Resources/7856131-1302708588094/GMR2011-CompleteReport.pdf
  • Homicides: World total: 289,000. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/06/there_will_not_be_blood and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11721/
  • Deaths from Cookfire Pollution so far this year: World Health Organization, 3 billion of the world's population cook over potentially toxic open fires; 2 million deaths annually can be linked to cookfire pollution.

Sources: Level 4 Population

  • Human Population: United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision Population Database, electronic database: http://esa.un.org/unpp, updated 11 March 2009
  • Deaths: US Census Bureau; http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2004/VanessaChambers.shtml; World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, United Nations Population Division
  • Births: US Census Bureau; http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2004/VanessaChambers.shtml
  • Net Population Increase this year: United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects
  • Human Population Added Today: Human population added per year divided by 365.
  • People Living in Urban Areas: More than 3.5 billion people (over 51% of the world's total population) live in urban environments; Keeping Track of Our Changing Environment, UNEP 2011,
  • People Added to Urban Areas this year: 200,000 people per day are added to urban environments. Keeping Track of Our Changing Environment, UNEP 2011,
  • Population Living in Slums: 827 million pople live in slums. Keeping Track of Our Changing Environment, UNEP 2011. (Note: A slum household is defined as a group of individuals living under the same roof lacking one or more of these conditions: access to improved water; access to improved sanitation; sufficient-living area; durability of housing; security of tenure.)
  • Forced to Flee Homes Due to Natural Disaster: 42 million in 2010. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. http://www.internaldisplacement.org/8025708F004BE3B1/(httpInfoFiles)/
    15D7ACEC7ED1836EC12578A7002B9B8A/$file/IDMC_natural-disasters_2009-2010.pdf

Sources: Level 5 Food

“There is no more essential commodity than food. Without food, people perish, social and political organizations disintegrate, and civilizations collapse.” — Norman Borlaug

Sources: Level 6 Energy


Sources: Level 7 Health

  • Human Population: United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision Population Database, electronic database: http://esa.un.org/unpp, updated 11 March 2009
  • Unintended Pregnancies: 80 million in 2010. U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA)
  • Unsafe Abortions: 20 million in 2010. U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA)
  • Deaths From Unsafe Abortions: 47,000 in 2010. U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA)
  • Children under the age of five who die from preventable causes: 7.6 million in 2010. http://www.unicef.org/media/files/Child_Mortality_Report_2011_Final.pdf
  • Human Population Added Today: Human population added per year divided by 365.
  • Hungry/Malnourished People: FAO, World Food Program, http://www.fao.org ;U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), "Global Hunger Declining, but Still Unacceptably High," policy brief (Rome, September 2010) and FAOSTAT.
  • Overweight Adults: 1.5 billion adults, 20 and older, are overweight. (43 million children under the age of 5 are overweight.) WHO, Obesity and Overweight Fact sheet # 311. March, 2011. The meter assumes this figure is rising at a rate of one person every 10 seconds.
  • Obese: 200 million men and 300 million women are obese. WHO, Obesity and Overweight Fact sheet # 311. March, 2011. The meter assumes this figure is rising at a rate of one person every 10 seconds.
  • Adults Dying per year as Result of Overweight or Obesity: 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese— the fifth leading cause of global dealths. WHO, Obesity and Overweight Fact sheet # 311. March, 2011.
  • Deaths: World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, United Nations Population Division; US Census Bureau; http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2004/VanessaChambers.shtml
  • People Without Access to Clean Water: 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies. World Health Organization. Safer Water, Better Health: Costs, benefits, and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2008/9789241596435_eng.pdf Chart: World Bank data 2011.
  • People Dying in Wars: World Bank, World Development Report 2011
  • Killed in Traffic Accidents: 1.3 million last year. Science Magazine, May 6, 2011 p. 657
  • Injured in Traffic Accidents: 50 million last year. Science Magazine, May 6, 2011 p. 657
  • Maternal Deaths: 345,000 per year. U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA)
  • Unintended Pregnancies: 80 million per year. U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA)
  • Unsafe Abortions so far this year: 47,000 per year. U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA
  • Children Under The Age of 5 Who Died From Preventable Causes: 7.6 million in 2010. http://www.unicef.org/media/files/Child_Mortality_Report_2011_Final.pdf
  • People Dying From Water-Related Diseases: 3,575,000 per year. World Health Organization
  • Cost of Treating Illnesses Associated with Obesity: $147 billion per year in US; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/AdultObesity/
  • Deaths form Malaria: "Global malaria mortality between 1980 and 2010: a systematic analysis", The Lancet, Feb. 2012, http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)60034-8/fulltext
  • Deaths from Cookfire Pollution so far this year: World Health Organization, 3 billion of the world's population cook over potentially toxic open fires; 2 million deaths annually can be linked to cookfire pollution.

Sources: Level 8 Education

Sources: Level 9 Communications

Sources: Level 10 Economics

Sources: Level 11 Climate

Sources:Level 12 Goals

The Earth Dashboard data sources include statistics from the following:

un logosworldbankunfpaedstats
un datawhounicef
unaidssipridevinfo
worldbankunctadusgsfaostatwdc
nasaeconomistemdat
iea

World Bank World Development Indicators
World Bank Global Development Finance
World Bank Africa Development Indicators
World Bank The Changing Wealth of Nations
World Bank Climate Change Data
World Bank Knowledge Economy Index
World Bank Global Statistics
World Bank Population Projections
World Bank Information and Communication (ICT) At-a-Glance Tables
World Bank AidFlows
World Bank EDStats
World Bank Poverty
World Health Organization (WHO) Global Health Observatory (GHO)
WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS)
WHO Global Health Atlas
UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
UNDP Data
UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
United Nations World Tourist Organization (UNWTO)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
UNODC
UN AIDS
UN Data
UN Cartographic
MDG Statistical Indicators
Food Security Statistics (FAO)
FAOSTAT
UN Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
International Telecommunications Union Statistics
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
OPEC
US CIA
US State Department Country Reports
US AID
US ERS/USDA International Data set
US Census International Database
US DOE
US EPA
EcoFacts
US Energy Information Agency
US National Climate Data Center (NCDC)
US Geological Survey
US Mineral Resource Data System
US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
US National Bureau of Economic Research Data
US Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR database
NASA data
Bureau of Economic Analysis International Accounts Data
Eurostat
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (UK)
International Emergency Disasters Database (EMDAT)
International Air Transport Association (IATA)
International Trade Administration
International Energy Agency
Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics
International Road Federation (IRF)
International Economic Statistics (IES)
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
Telegeography
Country Watch
Country Reports
World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
World Trade Organization (WTO)
Worldwide Importing/Exporting Companies
The Economist- Country Briefings
The Economist Intelligence Unit
Open Corporates
Hoovers
World Culture resources
World Religions
World Values
Nationmaster
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) World Data Center (Columbia University)
Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS)
Penn World Tables (PWT)
UC Atlas of Global Inequality
AquaMaps Environmental Dataset
World Resources Institute, Earth Trends
Earth Policy Institute data sets
World Watch Institute data sets
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), University of Uppsala, Sweden
International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) Armed Conflict Dataset
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Armed Conflict Database
International Centre for Prison Studies, King’s College London, World Prison Brief
Institute for Economics and Peace
Transparency International, Corruption Perception Index
EM-DAT International Disaster Database (Office of Foreign Disaster Aid and Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters [CRED] at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium)
Infochimps
Statistical Sites on the World Wide Web
International Labour Organization (ILO)
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
Development Gateway
Gapminder
Billion Prices Project (MIT)
ReliefWeb
World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases
Reporters Without Borders, Freedom of Press
Freebase
ETDEWEB
Global Adaptation Index
World Economic Forum,?Gender Gap Index
US Debt clock
Population Reference Bureau
HIV/AIDS indicators
Youth data
DevInfo
CEIC
Geohive
Statcounter
W3Counter
inforplease World Statistics
Global Issues stats
Global cancer
Global Mobile stats
Global wind stats
Global Wave Stats
Internet World Stats
Counterfeiting stats
OCLC -Libraries
Global Tire Stats
Global Warming stats
Publisher's Association stats
World Hunger 2011
Climate Analysis Indicators Tool