Tracking Hurricane Helene’s Devastation, Conflict Escalation in the Middle East, and the High Energy Costs of AI Chatbots

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Washington Post on hidden envrionmental costs of AI chatbots

The power of nature and climate change have been common themes in data journalism over the past few weeks. Hurricane Helene left a trail of destruction across six US states, more than 1,000 people were killed in African countries due to historic rainfall, and at least 17 people died in Central European countries affected by Storm Boris. The New York Times mapped Helene’s devastation while German newspaper Die Zeit offered a thought-provoking analysis of past flood statistics and explains why these deluges are difficult to explain with just numbers. This edition of our Top 10 in Data Journalism, which considered stories between September 16 and 29, also highlights a Washington Post analysis of the high energy cost of generative artificial intelligence; an interactive piece from Le Monde on the 51 men accused of a crime that has shocked France and the world; an overview from Our World in Data of which countries have the minerals needed for energy transition; and an InsightCrime investigation of organized crime in the Ecuadorian city of Durán.

Hurricane Helene’s Path of Destruction

NYT mapping Hurricane Helene's destruction

Image: Screenshot, The New York Times

On September 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall in the United States as a Category 4 superstorm, cutting a path of destruction from Florida’s Gulf Coast to Tennessee. Six states were affected with flooding and landslides, homes and roads were destroyed, and power, water, fuel, and cell phone service were cut off for millions. More than 130 deaths have been confirmed, but the toll could be higher given the large number of people missing. To provide a sense of the scale of the damage caused by winds exceeding 140 miles per hour (225 kilometers per hour) and severe storm surge that caused record flooding of up to 15 feet (4.5 meters), The New York Times created a mapping of the reports of destruction stretching over more than 600 miles, featuring geotagged photos and videos.

High Energy Costs of AI 

Washington Post water reqjuirements for AI chatbots

Image: Screenshot, The Washington Post

For years, tech giants and national governments have been vowing to cut their carbon emissions to prevent global climate collapse. But they didn’t count on yet another obstacle: artificial intelligence. The Washington Post explains how how chatbots perform thousands of calculations to determine the best responses for a user and, as a result, end up using an immense amount of energy. These systems then need to be cooled, which is usually done with water-cooled systems, but can also be done with massive air-conditioning-like devices. The Post teamed up with researchers at the University of California, Riverside, to figure out how much water and energy ChatGPT consumes to write an average 100-word email — and the results are sobering. Even under ideal conditions, water-cooled data centers are often among the biggest water users in the cities where they’re located, while those with electric cooling systems are driving up residents’ energy bills and straining the power grid.

51 Men on Trial in Avignon 

Le Monde public trial 51 men accused of rape

Image: Screenshot, Le Monde

In early September, an unprecedented charge of violence against women shocked France and the world. For 10 years, a French woman was reportedly drugged and raped by her husband and dozens of strangers, which he had invited via the internet to his village of Mazan, east of Avignon in the south of France. Now, he and 50 other men, identified through videos the husband recorded, are being tried for their alleged crimes. The case went public after the victim waived her right to anonymity. Le Monde gives us the backgrounds of the 51 men on trial, providing data such as their professions, which are diverse — among the accused are a firefighter, a journalist, a truck driver, a prison officer, a nurse, a local politician, and many others; their ages; where they lived; judicial records; and even data about their family status — at least 37 defendants are parents, and one was in the process of adoption.

Can You Win the US Presidential Election Game?

Financial Times US Presidential Election Game

Image: Screenshot, Financial Times

We recently mentioned in this column how difficult it is for foreigners to understand the US Electoral College voting system, and how elections are often decided by a small portion of voters in so-called “swing states.” But this Financial Times piece seeks to explain the decision-making process for presidential candidates competing to win in a more entertaining way: in the Election Game, the reader is running for president and must plan a winning campaign. You are given a budget of 100 credits to spend in 10 states where the races are tight, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and Georgia. Their rivals? Other FT readers. Whoever gets the most electoral votes at the end of the round wins. Just like in real life.

Tricky Statistics of Floods

Die Zeit flooding statistics in Europe

Data showing a slight increase in major flooding in Europe since 1950. Image: Screenshot, Die Zeit

In recent weeks, the passage of Storm Boris across the European continent left many countries in central Europe underwater. In Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary, torrential rains have left at least 26 people dead and thousands homeless. In this piece, however, Die Zeit invites us to reflect on flood numbers. According to the German newspaper, as important as the statistics describing floods are, they also have weaknesses and, in many cases, are not particularly clear. For example, according to Die Zeit, there are fewer deaths from floods now than there were 70 years ago, but this could be explained by better technologies and adaptation to flood risk, not by flood severity. This could also apply to the data on economic losses, which have also decreased, but it does not apply to the number of people affected each year, which has increased — a possible consequence of climate change.

Who Has the Minerals Needed for Energy Transition?

Our World in Data statistics on key minerals for energy transition

Cobalt is a key mineral used in the production of electric vehicle batteries. Image: Screenshot, Our World in Data

Fossil fuels are still the main source of energy in most parts of the world today. However, they are also the main cause of climate change because, when burned, they release greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. So what is needed to transition to clean energy sources such as solar, wind, and batteries? Various minerals certainly play an important part in the process. Lithium, for example, is the main component of the most popular battery technology. Among its largest producers are countries such as Australia, Chile, and China, which also have the largest reserves of these essential materials. But what about other critical minerals such as cobalt, nickel, and copper? Which countries produce them and which have reserves that could be mined in the future? In this report, Our World in Data presents an overview of the distribution of minerals essential for clean energy production, in a series of maps and graphs focusing on the production and reserves of various minerals.

Social Media, Teens, and Mental Health

SBS graph on social media platform usage, by year

Daily minutes spent on social media, by platform. Image: Screenshot, Mabu News

In this article, Mabu News, a newsletter from South Korean broadcaster SBS, analyzes the use of social media around the world and how it affects our mental health, especially in teenagers. The column explains how the “teen accounts” recently announced by Meta, the company that controls Instagram, should work. In addition to being private by default, the new type of account will also have limited usage time and greater parental control. Similar measures had already been adopted by TikTok, which, according to a survey conducted with more than 700,000 teenagers aged four to 18 worldwide by Custodio, was the most used social network by young people in 2023. Last year alone, the average daily use of the platform was 112 minutes. The report also states that, increasingly, social networks have a negative impact on the mental health of teenagers and highlights a study by Instagram itself on the harmful effects of the appearance comparison scale among its users, especially young people and women.

Conflict Escalates in the Middle East

The Guardian map of Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon

Image: Screenshot, the Guardian

With the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip approaching its first year, the prospect of all-out war in the Middle East seems imminent. This week, Israel launched a series of attacks in Lebanon, including airstrikes on the capital Beirut, which have killed more than 700 people. According to Israeli officials, the aim is to destroy the capabilities of another terror group, Hezbollah, and prepare for a potential ground invasion. In this visual guide to Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, the Guardian presents a timeline of attacks by both sides, as well as satellite imagery of the areas attacked and graphics of Israel’s targeted killings of Hezbollah members since November 2023. The report does not include, however, the recent assassination of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, which occurred on the same day the report was published, which is likely to further heighten tensions between countries in the region.

Dynamics of Organized Crime in Durán, Ecuador 

Tracking the rising rate of homicides in Duran, Ecuador, InsightCrime

Image: Screenshot, InsightCrime

Earlier this year, Ecuador experienced a wave of violence after the leader of the country’s largest criminal gang escaped from prison. Images of men armed with rifles and grenades storming the TC Television studio live on air were broadcast around the world. But this violence is not new. Since 2018, what was once one of the most peaceful countries in Latin America has seen a dramatic increase in homicide rates amid an increase in cocaine trafficking and disputes between criminal gangs over drug routes. Amid this turmoil, Durán, a southern city on the banks of the Guayaquil River, has emerged as an epicenter of violence. For two months, InsightCrime investigated the dynamics of organized crime in the city, conducting more than 150 interviews. In this piece, part of a series of reports, the team uses data from Ecuador’s Interior Ministry to explore the main characteristics of homicides in Ecuador and Durán – and how they relate to the presence of gangs – and provides important context for understanding the Latin American country’s national security crisis.

A World Still on Fire

Bloomberg mapping wildfires in the Arctice

Image: Screenshot, Bloomberg

In the last edition of our Top 10 in Data Journalism, we wrote about the coverage of wildfires around the world that we discovered in the curation process. This week, we’re highlighting this piece from Bloomberg that uses a series of maps and graphs to explain how even the Arctic is burning and how wildfires are moving below ground, where they smolder and emit massive amounts of pollution. According to the report, there have been many more fires than usual in the Arctic this year, particularly in the boreal forests of Canada and Europe and in the Siberian tundra, which historically freezes in winter and becomes waterlogged in summer. They also show how the 2024 fire season has been devastating for the Brazilian Pantanal — the world’s largest wetland — and how the presence of peat supercharges the carbon emissions of a wildfire, with degraded peatlands in Indonesia topping the rankings for emissions.

Bonus: Understanding the Data Visualization Community

State of the Data Viz Industry Survey

Image: Screenshot, Data Visualization Society

The Data Visualization Society conducts the State of the Data Viz Industry Survey each year to help its community understand the state of the field, the people who create it, the challenges they face, what can help practitioners, and where discipline is headed. The deadline to respond to the 2024 edition of the survey has been extended to October 7. Responses are anonymous and the data will be publicly available at a later date. Join Now!


Ana Beatriz Assam is GIJN’s Portuguese editor and a Brazilian journalist. She has worked as a freelance reporter for the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, mainly covering stories featuring data journalism. She also works for the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) as an assistant coordinator of journalism courses.

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