I remember Chernobyl. It was terrifying, because watching the news, no one in the US seemed to know what was going on over in the Soviet Union. And Ronald Reagan seemed a bit senile at the time.
As a kid that was scary. Now that I’ve grown up, I realize it’s true: no one, in any political institution from the household to the United Nations really has any freaking clue of what’s going on. And acceptable levels of senility apparently have an appreciating scale among US presidents.
I was excited to make a map about Chernobyl until I discovered an an absolutely stellar atlas on the Chernobyl disaster done by Harvard University. So there was no sense creating an inferior product in 30 minutes to compete with that. Seriously, check out their work here. Kudos and wonderful work.
But… always the devil’s advocate, there is a major irony I still don’t understand in many of my friends’ and family members’ contemporary views on nuclear power – which are almost universally anti-nuclear. These fears are not data based. (And that’s okay. I still love the Minnesota Twins baseball team, even though all the data says I should have given up on them in 2001.) But for those that say they are into rational, data-based decision-making, particularly about the environment, I feel like nuclear gets short shrift.
But I digress. Nuclear power is not as popular as other sustainable technologies, but… Though the disasters like Chernobyl and Fukishima were certainly very real to those affected, they pale in comparison to the energy disaster that continues to kill tens of thousands – indeed, potentially hundreds of thousands – around the world every year. Coal-powered energy may be killing you or your neighbors right now, depending on where you live. (Radon too but that’s a map for Celebrate Radon Day, I imagine.)
That’s right: coal kills magnitudes more than other energy types, particularly nuclear. How much more. That’s what I try to show you in today’s map. 🙂
Prompt Used in WebMapGPT
# Intent
Chernobyl Remembrance Day is coming up soon. I would like to release a map on that day showing just how deadly coal is and continues to be by comparison.
The map should be antagonistic in nature – anti-coal power and subtly pro-nuclear power.
# Design
You may use devise a design plan that requires me to design and include PNGs or SVGs as icons, symbols, or embedded images. Just let me know.