A Data Visualization Newsletter

With a net worth of roughly $172 billion, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and former CEO, is one of the richest men on the planet. But sometimes it can be hard to comprehend just how rich he is. Mona Chalabi tries to put it in perspective through a series of illustrative examples in this piece for The New York Times.

Cutting carbon emissions to stem climate change is going to require navigating difficult tradeoffs. To illustrate the choices that global leaders may face, the Financial Times created this “Climate Game”, where you’ll act as the “global minister for future generations” trying to cut net emissions to zero by 2050. Are you up to the task?

It’s not just home buyers who have been feeling a pandemic-induced price surge. Rents rose a record 11.3% last year according to CoStar Group, and continued to grow in the first few months of 2022. Few places have escaped the recent rental hikes, but the hike has been particularly pronounced in places like Florida and Arizona. Check out this map from the Washington Post to see how much rents in your area have grown.

When a massive volcano in Tonga erupted back in January, it created a major tsunami with far-reaching consequences. But it also spawned something that scientists haven’t seen in half a century: a planetary-scale pressure wave, or shockwave, in the atmosphere. This pressure wave circumnavigated the globe in about 36 hours, setting off weather sensors in far-flung places like Japan, Britain, India, and the U.S. Scientists will be studying it for years to come.

Social media platforms have seen widespread adoption in the U.S. at this point. But the specific apps we use tend to vary a lot based on our age. Recent data from Pew Research Center shows that younger folks are more likely to use Instagram, Snapchat, and Tik Tok, while those in older demo groups tend to be on Pinterest, Facebook, and Nextdoor.