Analyze Volumes of Global Environmental Data in Minutes!
by Don Rittner


Imagine being able to have thousands of pages of raw environmental data at
your fingertips and be able to analyze and study them at the click of a
button!  It's possible!  PEMD Education Group has published a CDROM disc for
Macintosh computer users called the Environmental Data Disc.  It contains
over 125 megabytes of data including temperature and precipitation data for
over 800 US stations; worldwide food, agriculture and demographic data;
energy, economic and trade data; atmospheric ozone data for over 100
stations; general environmental data from the World Resources Institute
(1990-91) A guide to the Global Environment;  and more.  The Environmental
Data Disc is a valuable analysis tool that all scientists, researchers,
teachers, and students working in the environmental community should have.

To make sense of all the data, PEMD has put the data in a series of Hypercard
stacks, called Datastacks.  Hypercard is a multimedia software program
originally given free by Apple Computer and now sold by Claris Corporation,
but is included on this disc free.  Graphical representation of the data is
then created using PEMD's software program called Discovery.

The user first creates data files called 'Discovery Files' simply by choosing
the variables he/she wants to study from the datastacks.  A few clicks of the
mouse on the familiar Macintosh interface is all it takes to get the data in
graphical form - the Discovery program does all the work.  If the user wants
to export the data into their own database or spreadsheet for manipulation,
extracting data text files is also easy.

The user opens a datastack (e.g. CO2 emissions) that lists the data as
variables (e.g. solid, liquid, gas), items (e.g. US, Soviet Union, Japan),
and the years that data is available ( e.g., 1950-88).  The user makes a
selection by clicking on the combination of the three data categories and
when done creates a 'discovery' file.  The user then simply selects the x and
y coordinates and number of points on the graph and the Discovery application
computes the information from the created discovery file and graphs the data
as a line graph.  It's that simple.  



You have complete control over the data too.  You can graph other variables,
create new variables, change the Y-axis and items by swapping, re-scale the
graphs, even add color to your graphs.  You can obtain the actual numbers of
the data by clicking on the data points in the graph, do some computations
like checking percentages, and create a horizontal or vertical maker line
that allows the user to focus their research or attention on a subset of the
graphed data.  Finally, the user can save or print the graph.

To help understand how to use the data and the Discovery application, PEMD
includes a users manual on the disc that can be printed and a couple of
instructional modules that takes the user step by step through the process
using the Global Warming issue as the focus of study.  The instructional
modules are well written and thought provoking.  PEMD has done an excellent
service here to be able to provide such an immense amount of raw data and
make it so easy to analyze.  With the Discovery application, you don't need
an extensive background in mathematics.  Discovery will do the number
crunching leaving the user the task of solving the world's environmental
problems.

The data collected and used on the disc was compiled from the World Resources
Institute, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, World Health Organization, and the World Ozone Data Center.
 There is not enough room in this review to list all the data sets but it is
immense.  It should be noted though that many of the tables found in the
World Resources Guide to the Global Environment are included as Excel text
files so they may be directly imported into the Excel Spreadsheet program.

PEMD also publishes a quarterly newsletter, Business & The Environment: A
Digest of the Impact of Environmental Events on Business.  The four issues
for 1990 are included on the disc in a special Business folder and are
valuable reading.  Articles on the Discovery Project as well as other
educational and business information is included on the disc but is
peripheral to the importance of the environmental data.

Rating:  4.8 (5.0 highest)

User Friendly:  4.7
Significant Environmental Value:  4.8
Educational Value: 5.0

Requirements:  Macintosh computer, CDROM Drive, Hypercard 2.0 (included),
System 6.07 (included) or 7.0.

Source:  Environmental Data Disc.  PEMD Education Group, P.O. Box 39, 178
Vine Street, Cloverdale, CA 95425.  Tel. (707) 894-3668; Fax. (707) 894-5200.
 Price: $149

Copyright 1991, Don Rittner
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Don Rittner is the author of EcoLinking: Everyone's Guide to Online
Information (Peachpit Press), a columnist for Environment News Service, and
Host of America Online's Environmental Forum.