7 Billion People in Kinetic Typography

Earlier today, we spotlighted National Geographic‘s Great Migrations — a fascinating look at how large numbers of animals move as one. But perhaps even more fascinating, often in a troublesome kind of way, is how humanity’s ever-growing legions adapt to inhabiting a planet that seems to shrink. This preview for 7 Billion, a year-long series National Geographic is doing on overpopulation — an issue so enormous and far-reaching few of us truly grasp its gravity, and also one of the “elements” in yesterday’s A Is for Armageddon: An Illustrated Catalogue of Disasters — delivers some jaw-dropping facts in beautifully animated kinetic typography.

In 1975, there were 3 megacities — Tokyo, Mexico City and New York City. Right now, there are 21. By 2050, 70% of us will be living in urban areas.”

Standing shoulder to shoulder, all 7 billion of us would fill the city of Los Angeles.”

For an intelligent take on overpopulation, its implications for our not-at-all distant future and the opportunities that lie in it, we highly recommend David Christensen’s Two Elephants in the Room: Overpopulation and Opportunities We Overlook at Our Peril.

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NatGeo’s Great Migrations: Nature’s Most Epic Journeys

For over three years, a tireless team of filmmakers, photographers and explorers traveled more than 420,000 miles in what became the most ambitious endeavor in National Geographic‘s 122-year history. Great Migrations is an epic, in the literal sense of the word, documentary miniseries that captures the remarkable journeys of animals as they travel unthinkable distances in great numbers but pursue their survival as a singular brain. Filmed by some of the world’s most acclaimed wildlife cinematographers, the series not only reveals the incredible synchronicity of nature but also bespeaks the tender fragility of a planet that hangs in precarious balance.

A magnificent companion book follows the sequence of the film in vivid color. The narrative is divided into three sections: “The Need for Speed” portrays migrations as a survival race against time; “The Need to Feed” unearths the ruthless cross-species confrontations that lurk beneath our idylic perception of peaceful green pastures; “Need to Lead” illuminates the fascinating hierarchical, military-like division of roles and resonsibilities in migrations; “The Need to Breed” explores the deadly risks animals face as they fight to ensure the propagation of the species’ genes.

Albatrosses

Pelicans

Zebras

Walruses

Pronghorns

The 7-hour HD epic is now out on DVD and Blu-Ray and is narrated by none other than Alec Baldwin.

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A is for Armageddon: An Illustrated Guide to the Apocalypse

What rock-paper-scissors has to do with nuclear energy and the primordial soup.

We don’t have to listen too closely to the media to get their predominant message, loud and clear: The world as we know it is coming to an end. But rather than recoiling into paranoia at the all hopeless prospects out there, why not have some fun with it, all the while doing our best to prevent the apocalypse in an informed and intelligent way? That’s exactly what author and illustrator Richard Horne of 101 Things to Do Before You Die fame does in his latest gem, A Is for Armageddon: An Illustrated Catalogue of Disasters — a potent blend of serious science and serious snark exploring the most pessimistic possibilities for mankind’s impending demise.

From religious warfare to grey goo to deforestation, Horne combines science, superstition and sociology in a beautifully illustrated, delightfully dystopian guide to the apocalypse. Underlying the wickedly entertaining tone, however, is a grounded, non-preachy crusade for awareness that exudes the call of urgency none of us want to hear but all of us must.

Edifying and entertaining, A Is for Armageddon came out just after our selection of the best books of 2010, but would’ve absolutely made our list.

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