For my final data visualization project, I chose to work with a data set detailing the different factors contributing to the total CO2 emissions of 43 of the most common foods grown across the world. It highlights the environmental impacts of various food products.
I decided to work with this dataset because I was interested in learning about the greenhouse gas emissions of different foods, as well as the parts of the manufacturing process that contributed most to their carbon footprint.
In my visualization, the data is represented as bubbles that correspond to a different food product. The various colors of bubbles represent the food category (for example, meat), and the size represents the amount of CO2 that each product emits. The larger the bubble size, the larger the CO2 emission for that particular food product.
To interact with the visualization, try hovering over a bubble. The name of the food will appear, as well as the total emissions in kg of CO2 released for every kg of the product produced. You will also see a pie chart with various slices of different colors. Each of these colors corresponds to a different stage in the product's life cycle. The size of each slice compares the CO2 emission of that specific stage to the total emission of the product. The larger the slice, the more that factor contributes to the total carbon footprint of the food.
You may notice that some pie chart slices are missing for certain products. This represents how some crops can reduce carbon dioxide when it comes to land use —instead of releasing greenhouse gases, they become a carbon sink, absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere.
The key for the pie chart may be hard to see while scrolling. Here it is for reference if needed:
Farming: Red Transport: Orange Processing: Yellow Land use: Green
Animal Feed: Blue Retail: Purple Retail: Purple Packaging: Pink
One interesting thing I noticed during this project is that the animal and livestock industry have significantly higher carbon footprints than other crops. Specifically, both beef and dairy herds have incredibly large CO2 emissions, as well as lamb and mutton.
Something I still wonder about is if there is a way to maximize the use of carbon sinks in agriculture. I noticed that many crops grown on trees in the data absorb more carbon than they emit.
The most challenging part of this project was figuring out how to represent foods that had a "negative" impact on carbon through land use. It was difficult to embody this information in a pie chart, but I still felt that it was important and needed to be included.
If I had more time, I would like to make my keys stay on the screen even as the user scrolls to see all the data points. This would make for a better user experience and a more streamlined interaction overall
My proudest moment during this project was when Thane and I came up with the idea of making blank slices on the pie charts to represent crops that absorbed CO2 through their land use.