It is always easier for we humans to understand how big, small, heavy, etc. things are if given a visual. So we were trying to do just that to help Oracle OpenWorld better express the impact of avoiding the use of one million plastic bottles in 2008 and 2009.
Our own Shawna Mckinley, Data Poet of MeetGreen, determined that one million empty plastic water bottles weigh approximately 15 metric tonnes. And 15 tonnes can be compared to the weight of:
· 9 VW beetles
· 15 dairy cows
· 210 humans
· 2 elephants
· 15 dairy cows
· 210 humans
· 2 elephants
While I am having great fun with this blog post, it is a good reminder that converting our efforts to visuals to tell the story does really help. Other examples is to talk about paper savings in trees instead of pounds of paper or saving greenhouse gases by the amount of cars it would take off the road. You get the picture!
1 comment:
This is fantastic. It would also be impressive to do a calculation of how much space so many bottles would take.. and how many barrels of oil to produce that many bottles. It makes such a difference.
Paper is of particular interest and I've just completed a short post which includes such a measurement.. the 8 million pages of paper at COP15 equal the weight of 2 huge dumptrucks. See: http://bit.ly/8c3evE
for more.
Thank you for shining a light on the path for the rest of us Nancy and Shawna and team!
-michael
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