Articles by Anna Fahey

Chris Jordan makes staggering statistics visually real

Our minds have a limited capacity to comprehend really, really big numbers. At least mine does. A million tons of C02 might as well be a zillion. Twelve and a half million dollars spent every hour on the Iraq war might as well be bazillions.

Sometimes we try to fathom the enormities of raw numbers by visualizing them. How often have you heard that something stacked on end would extend to the moon and back?

But that never helps me. I can't actually comprehend just how many pop cans, or human DNA particles, or safety pins, or Chevy engines or hot dogs would get me to the moon. It's just a heck of a lot.

Luckily for people like me, Seattle artist Chris Jordan has found a way to put big numbers into perspective.

Taking pointers from Schwarzenegger on talking about global warming.

Not only is Schwarzenegger leading California to many firsts in climate policy, he's also leading the way when it comes to talking about global warming.

Any savvy politician knows you can't get policy on the books without first winning over your colleagues and constituents. And Arnie is surely one of the savviest politicos around. Here's how he's doing it:

First, he taps into Californian pride and shared American values, stressing leadership, innovation, and a call to make history:

You’ve got to see this photo

When it comes to effective messages, sometimes picture is worth a thousand books by George Lakoff. I'll give you a perfect case of well-intentioned words getting trounced in the marketplace of ideas. You have to see this.

Environment is top concern for Canadians. Americans, not so much.

Cascadians on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border share a deep connection to our temperate corner of the world. But if national polling data is any indication of regional opinion, we may not necessarily share the same views when it comes to the fate of our piece of the planet -- or even of the planet itself. Public opinion polling in the two countries shows a boundary between perceptions almost as stark as the national border drawn on a political map.

In recent polling by Gallup and Pew, Americans display little concern about the environment and global warming -- far less, as it turns out, than their Canadian counterparts.