The state of North America’s biodiversity (@TheBigWild)

I pondered whether this should be a longer post on my research blog or a quick-and-dirty one on my personal one, but what really struck me is how powerful graphical comparisons can be. I often use comparative data in my teaching, not only in my research. Also, when Darren Barefoot (Capulet) emailed me about this graph, it really struck a chord with me, because while most people seem to be unaware of the fact that I am a specialist in North American environmental policy, Darren’s email was perfectly targeted. He knew that I am a scholar of environmental policy, and he knew that I’m a comparativist by training. Yes, while much of my fieldwork has been done in Canada and Mexico (for somewhat obvious reasons), I specialize in comparative environmental policy in Canada, US and Mexico. I sit on a number of advisory tri-national committees. I *love* analyzing data that compares all three countries. And the graph provided by The Big Wild is actually quite powerful. You can check it out here.

Thanks to Darren for pointing this infographic to me, it’s amazing how powerful it is. Please pay particular attention to the ecological footprint of Mexico (the smallest) vis-a-vis the US and Canada, and in particular, the fact that a country with the city that has more than 5 times the population of Canada has a 6 times smaller ecological footprint. Amazing, eh? First-world-country problems…

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