Blog Post #3

The map below on infant mortality illustrates the number of babies who die during their first year of life. Looking at the map just shows how well off Americans in the United States are when it comes to the life of their newborn children. In 2002, 7.2 million infant deaths were recorded worldwide; that is 5.4% of all babies born that died within the first 12 months. Of those that died, 2.3% had passed away in the first week. The map show India extremely expanded, which makes sense; India had the most infant deaths reaching 2.7 million, 27% of the World's total. In 22 territories, all being in Africa, the death rate for infants is over 1 death for every 10 live births. The highest rate is in Sierra Leone; 16.5 babies die out of every 100 born alive.

Infant

Mortality

It is devastating to see how Africa and India suffer from infant mortality. The spread of diseases in India really affects the infant mortality rate. Although there are many more people in India, when looking at population, but 2.7 million deaths is a huge number. Africa also suffers greatly in this area. Being an undeveloped people, the amount of care and ability to avoid illnesses are harder to find. AIDS, being a big problem in Africa, surely plays a role in the number of infant deaths as well. I cannot even imagine having 1 out of every 10 children dying. Looking at South America, I am almost surprised that the infant death rate isn't higher, but it also puts things into perspective since South America seems so much better off in this area. The whole situation can be switched around; it all depends on how you look at things.

In a different map, Killed by Extreme Temperature, India is again greatly enlarged. I find it interesting how India can have such a huge population yet have high rates on death counts. The map shown below demonstrates the number of people killed by extreme heat or cold waves from the year 1975 to 2000. Although the numbers are less than the infant count, over 15,000 deaths due to extreme temperatures were reported in those years. The most deaths have occurred in India, the United States, Greece, and Mexico. In rank, Greece comes in with the most in value at 3.8 and the United States is ranked 9th with 0.3. At a first glance, India looked, by far, the greatest, but when considering the size and population of the county, it is understandable that it isn't as high as it appears. Greece, on the other hand, is a rather small country and it being enlarged to the size of Europe is substantially contrasting. I was very surprised that the values in South American and African countries wasn't higher. The temperatures are extreme and they have lesser amounts to cool themselves with air conditioning. The reason, however, makes sense. The main problem with the extreme temperatures is when they are out of the ordinary and unexpected. Since people and Africa and South America live in the hot and humid temperatures everyday, they have adapted to the amount or heat and just merely gotten used to the climate, where as in Asia and the United States, the summers can be extremely hot, but the winters can be very cold as well. When looking at these maps, it is interesting to see the different things that affect a country and to what degree they are being affected; the viewer gets to see the world in a different perspective and with that, see the world through new eyes.

Killed

By

Extreme

Temperature