Watersheds [234]

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.

Prison Populations [235]

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.

Red Tape - Impediments to Business [297]

One of the biggest roadblocks to economic growth and poverty reduction is excessive business regulation. Among the 155 economies measured in 2005/2006, it is easiest to do business in New Zealand and most difficult in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On the globe, the top 25 performers in terms of the ease of doing business have no “red tape.” Countries ranked 26 through 50 are marked by one line of red tape, those ranked 51 through 80 have two lines, and those ranked 81 through 145 have three. The bottom 10 countries are covered in red lines – with the exception of Laos, these countries are all in Africa. Countries not measured in the report are marked by a black line.

Deserts [314]

The world's most arid regions occur along the tropics of cancer and capricorn.
Deserts are areas that receive precipitation of less than 250 mm p.a. The largest desert by this standard is Antarctica. Some deserts climates extend into the ocean. The waters adjacent to the Atacama in Chile are technically deserts.

Coffee Trade and Consumption [320]

Energy Generation/ Consumption [322]

87% of the world energy consumption is generated from fossil fuels (gas, coal, oil). The rest is equally divided between nuclear (6%) and hydro energy (7%).
Alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and ocean wave/tidal power account for barely 0.1 %. Only in Spain and Germany do these sources supply up to 1% of the total consumption.
Yellow-green: Nuclear - Black: Fossil - Blue: Hyrdo - Silver line: Alternative.
Breadth of bars indicate regional consumption volume.

Internet Free Zones [328]

Less than one percent of the population has access to the Internet in these countries.

First Female Parliamentarian [279]

The red line on this globe traces temporally, country by country, the first election of a female to parliament following the precedent set by Finland in 1907 through to 1946 when the first female parliamentarian in Japan was elected to office.

Mobile Teledensity 2006 [327]

Mobile phone density is shown in four levels:
Countries where people have less than 10 phones for 100 people are not covered; 10 to 50 phones per inhabitants are lightly crisscrossed; 51 to 99% is the next step and countries with more mobile phones than citizens have the highest density.

Regional Energy Consumption and GDP [331]

Regional energy consumption (red horizontal bars) is correlated with vertical bar graphs indicating GDP (Gross Domestic Product) figures. Arrows indicate the rate of increasing consumption. China is currently the world's largest coal consumer and is projected to be the largest energy consumer by 2023.

Car-free Countries [325]

Many industrialized nations have about half as many cars as citizens. Green overlaid countries have the least number of cars per capita: in these countries up to 11,000 inhabitants would have to share a single motor vehicle.

Nuclear Energy Dependency [162-4]

Violet parts of a given country represent the proportional dependency on atomic energy. The remainder (yellow) represents the reliance on conventional energy sources.