This is to make up for the car I drive

I found this very cool map, cool and rather disheartening at the same time. It's the US' carbon footprint - plotted by actual emissions. Which you'd think wouldn't be such a big deal.

Well, it turns out that CO2 emissions across the States used to be "calculated" (and let's use that word loosely) based on population... which seems massively unfair. And, as it so happens, also plain wrong. The Northeast? So over-blamed in the game, and the Southeast not blamed enough... well, those days are oh-ver.

Never underestimate the power of the map. Hey, my brother-in-law is a cartographer, and I'm telling you, don't mess with the mapmakers.

I read about the map on Wired's Science Blog:

the NASA- and Department of Energy-funded scientists can detail emissions across all 9 million square kilometers that compose the United States. For a full explanation, check out the video that Purdue's Kevin Gurney put together, which features a number of other excellent CO2 visualizations. Andy Revkin, the New York Times' environment-beat writer, put a memorable headline on a post about the video, calling it, "Breath of a Nation."

Oh yeah, my car? Well, let's just say, that red dot over there? That would be me. I am part of the problem. I confess.