Last week I was commissioned to create another series of illustrations for ProPublica, this time the topic was Carbon Credits. Carbon Credits are benefits awarded for projects that reduce pollution through forest preservation. To clarify here is what journalist Lisa Song has written “In case after case, I found that carbon credits hadn’t offset the amount of pollution they were supposed to, or they had brought gains that were quickly reversed or that couldn’t be accurately measured to begin with. Ultimately, the polluters got a guilt-free pass to keep emitting CO₂, but the forest preservation that was supposed to balance the ledger either never came or didn’t last.”
Far from the easiest content I’ve had to put into visuals, I loved working through these, translating the information into these illustrations. Thank you to Agnes Chang for the great art direction and to the editors as well for allowing the data to be transformed into something more abstract.

Here are the 3 features and additional 3 spots.