Tell us About Yourself:
I’m a cartographer at Woodwell Climate Research Center where I make maps that communicate climate science to address the climate crisis. Previously I was a graphics editor at National Geographic magazine where I made maps on topics ranging from climate change to conservation and biodiversity. My background is in physical geography, so while my mapping interests naturally gravitate towards environmental subjects, I like to make maps that have an interesting and important story to tell.
When I’m not making maps, I enjoy backpacking, paddle boarding, snowboarding, reading, and telling my dog that she’s perfect.
Tell us the story behind your map:
The Arctic is warming three to four times faster than the rest of the world, contributing to permafrost thaw. Permafrost contains an estimated 1.5 trillion tons of carbon, and as the Arctic warms, it puts the region at risk of emitting more carbon dioxide than it sequesters, threatening Arctic communities and our global climate. I was asked by Woodwell’s Arctic team to make a map of permafrost extent in Alaska for Senator Lisa Murkowski, who turns to Woodwell for climate science that can inform legislation around climate change issues in her state of Alaska. After making a large poster version of the map, I made another version to share on social media, which I then tweaked for submission to the geohipster calendar.
Tell us about the Tools, data, etc:
I used a combination of ArcPro to style the raster, Eduard to create the hillshade, and Adobe Illustrator to bring all the elements together and add labels. This permafrost dataset was published by Gruber et al. 2012.
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