As we lurch along the global space-time continuum, occasionally bumping into the international date line or falling into that black hole known as the Ambien time warp, it’s useful to know which way the wind is blowing and whether it’s a hurricane or just blowback from a decade of Karl Rove politics.
John Corbett is here to help.
Corbett is an agricultural climatologist with an array of fabulous degrees. He has lived in Mexico, Kenya, Switzerland and Texas, and now hunkers down in a sweet little office in Golden.
He is in geek heaven these days, and it’s easy to see how he got there. He used a map.
“A map is a phenomenal way to synthesize complex information,” he said. The human brain comprehends data delivered by an image 60 times faster than the same information presented via spreadsheet, he said.
The trouble is, mapping is a complicated skill.
At least it was.
Corbett has developed a software program that is like geographic information science for dummies. Click on a spreadsheet, click on the software, select your color scheme, and bam, there’s your map.
You could display, say, where men over 40 live, where divorce rates are highest, areas with the greatest numbers of days with sunshine. And where the highest concentration of Porsches are registered.
Corbett’s company is AWhere Inc., and it’s already helping Starbucks manage thousands of coffeeshops with different clientele, weather, transportation requirements and product preferences. The maps help them anticipate needs and target marketing campaigns.
It works like this: Hot weather forecast for Kansas City? Better deliver more ice for Frappuccinos … that kind of thing.
Integrating databases into a useful form is called a “mashup,” and Corbett said mapping mashups vastly improves decision-making.
“It’s the democratization of data,” he said. Once someone has access to an interactive mapping tool, the boundaries, the trends, the gaps in information – even the mistakes – that are tediously obscure on spreadsheets become glaringly obvious.
Corbett could spend all his time hustling his clever software to consumer-products companies, educational organizations, financial institutions, maybe even Google, which sure would help him pay the tuition to put his three kids through college.
But he’s not.
This week he’s flying to Oslo, Norway, for the annual African Green Revolution Conference to participate in a workshop on database mapping. The hope is to help African countries adapt to climate change.
“Climate scientists hate averages,” he said, and when it comes to coping with climate change in the developing world, access to precise, accurate, location-specific information can mean the difference between survival and mass starvation.
AWhere is working closely with the Stockholm Environmental Institute to merge research with policymaking and encourage sustainable development. The maps help scientists and government leaders visualize how global warming will affect such things as water supplies, extreme weather patterns, arable landscapes and disease outbreaks, and see what resources might be needed to help people cope.
A not-insignificant side benefit is that mapping the mountains of scientific data just might help ordinary folks everywhere comprehend what’s happening to the planet and take action to protect it.
“The world is very intertwined,” Corbett said. “The more people understand the factors involved in decision-making, the less likely they are to feel hoodwinked.”
Corbett looks at his work on climate change as an opportunity to do good – and do well at the same time.
He knows that the future may seem ominous – bleak even – but if the world is going to find a way to get from here to there through expanding deserts, melting ice caps and wildly changing weather patterns, one thing’s for sure: Everybody will need a decent map.
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Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 303-954-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
