Harmful Industries Bubble Chart
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About This Visualization
This interactive bubble chart visualizes the comparative gross harm of 17 major industries across two critical dimensions:
- Y-Axis (Vertical): Gross Harm to People - measured through deaths, DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Years), and direct human suffering
- X-Axis (Horizontal): Gross Harm to Planet - measured through environmental externalities, carbon emissions, and ecosystem damage
- Bubble Size: Economic Impact - relative economic footprint of the industry
Understanding Gross Harm vs. Net Harm
This visualization measures gross harm—the total negative impacts of an industry—without accounting for benefits. This is an important distinction:
| Measure | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Gross Harm | Total negative impacts only | AI uses significant energy (harm) |
| Net Harm | Harms minus benefits | AI energy use minus efficiency gains from AI optimization |
Why gross harm?
- Provides a clear "harm inventory" useful for advocacy and awareness
- Benefits are often harder to quantify and more subjective
- Separating harms from benefits allows clearer analysis of each
Limitations of this approach:
Industries like AI, Healthcare, and Renewable Energy may appear more harmful than their net impact suggests because their significant benefits are not factored in. For example:
- AI Industry (center of chart): High energy use and job displacement risks, but also enables medical breakthroughs, accessibility tools, and scientific research
- Healthcare: Can cause harm through fraud and over-treatment, but obviously provides enormous benefits
How to Use
- Hover over any bubble to see detailed information about that industry
- Each industry is represented by a different colored circle
- Industries in the upper-right quadrant cause high gross harm to both people and planet
- Larger bubbles represent industries with greater economic impact
Key Insights
The visualization helps identify:
- Industries with disproportionate gross harm relative to their economic contribution
- Trade-offs between human health impacts and environmental damage
- High-impact targets for ethical reform and intervention
- Patterns in how different sectors concentrate harm
Data Source
Industry rankings and harm metrics are based on the research compiled in Chapter 2: Measuring Harm, drawing from authoritative sources including WHO, FAO, ILO, and peer-reviewed epidemiological studies.
Learning Applications
This visualization supports:
- Systems Thinking: Understanding interconnected harm across multiple dimensions
- Leverage Point Analysis: Identifying high-impact intervention opportunities
- Ethical Decision Making: Comparing industries using data-driven frameworks
- Advocacy Planning: Prioritizing reform efforts based on quantified harm
Future Enhancement: Net Harm Visualization
A valuable next step would be creating a companion Net Harm Bubble Chart that attempts to quantify benefits and show Net Harm = Gross Harm - Benefits. This would:
- Provide a more nuanced view of industry impacts
- Better represent industries with significant positive contributions
- Enable comparison between gross and net perspectives
- Spark discussion about how to quantify benefits
Challenges include the subjectivity of benefit quantification and the difficulty of comparing different types of benefits (economic, health, convenience, innovation) on a single scale.