Perspective is a truly wonderful thing. Concerns that were presented to me in a way that asked me to view them from a new perspective have had a tendency to stick with me.

An example of one such concern was when I first saw Carl Sagan discuss the Pale Blue Dot as part of his amazing Cosmos series (I’m not a fan of the accompanying music, I think the words are powerful enough alone). The image of the Earth as seen from a space craft leaving our solar system really is a significant one.

I also enjoyed reading the A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. The book is a whistle stop tour of scientific discovery through human history. I especially enjoyed it not only because it talked about things that have already inspired me but because Bill Bryson is, by his own admission, not a scientist. It was great to read how as a layman he had taken in all these ideas, long talks with experts and then how he had decided to present them within the book.

Out of all the interesting side lines and observations the one point made which really remains with me is the remark by Bryson that at roughly the same time Isaac Newton was jotting down how gravity worked someone was clubbing the last ever Dodo to death. The idea that such unbridled genius could exist at the same time as such uncaring action really left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Most recently however the perspective that has really brought home to me some important issues is the Worldmapper website. This website “is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.” For example:

The traditional land area map:

 
Traditional land area map. [image by Worldmapper]

 And now the population map:

Population map. [image by Worldmapper]

You can see China and India swell in size as their population is massive compared to other countries. Europe and Japan swell as their populations are disproportionate to their land mass and the Americas, Africa and Australia shrink due to their large size but comparatively modest populations.

I first saw these maps presented as part of a TED Prize Wish talk by Neil Turok. Neil’s wish was for an African Einstein as he saw the development of science as a way for a country to work their way out of hardship. A major hurdle for development in Africa (where he focused his work) was the crippling poverty much of the continent finds itself in. The worldmapper plots demonstrated very coldly the scale of the problem.

World poverty:

World poverty map. [image by Worldmapper]

Compared to population, China shrinks due to its major economic upheaval. Europe and Japan shrivel to nothing. The Americas and Australia also disappear to a few threads. South Asia is led by its large population and is made nearly spherical as a result. Africa swells despite its comparatively small population with land area.

Couple this picture with a major disease such as HIV:

Major disease map. [image by Worldmapper]

It paints a fairly grim picture. However, as I began, it’s all about perspective. It would be too easy to feel powerless to tackle such a major issue but as within Neil’s talk he uses these maps to focus his efforts. It provided himself and now his audience with a new perspective and a better grasp of the problem.

Neil’s work is unquestionably inspiring. He has pioneered university projects across the continent to help put in place part of the infrastructure required for the continent to tackle the problems it faces. From Neil’s point of view the questions of how to tackle poverty within Africa are massive but not unanswerable. I’m happy I got to see the world through his eyes.

The Worldmapper images are used under a creative commons license and are © Copyright 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan).

This blog is part of Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty

About the author

Andrew Morris is currently studying for a PhD at the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute (PSSRI) sited at the Open University working with a co-sponsoring company in developing instrumentation for terrestrial and non-terrestrial applications. Previous to this he undertook a master’s degree in Physics with Space Science and Technology at the University of Leicester.

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