Toxic Earth is a three-dimensional data visualization that displays the spread of air pollution and its causes. According to National Geographic, nearly 2.5 million people die worldwide each year from the effects of air pollution and Toxic Earth aims to spread awareness of the severity of air pollution. Most maps of air pollution are two-dimensional making them difficult to read and this project proves that data visualizations in three dimensions are more advantageous than those in two.

Toxic Earth was made for people unaware of how widespread air pollution is and how it has worsened over time. There are three sliders that a user can change, air pollution, wildfires, and CO2 emissions. Each of these sliders allows the user to go back in time and view historical data. The data was collected through credible organizations such as NASA and The World Air Quality Index. The data is filtered in Python and then the code generates a greyscale map representing the intensity of the pollution, fire, or emissions. In Unreal Engine, the map is used to displace the geometry of a sphere. This effect uses the displacement of points on the textured surface to create a depth and relief effect on the geometry. Essentially, the map generated dictates what certain points should be pulled on the Earth. The final visualization is similar to a bar graph but the pillars derive from the surface of the Earth. The pillars vary in height based on the input data. When the user moves the sliders the height of the pillars and their location will change. Toxic Earth is meant to inspire people to take extra steps to reduce air pollution while exercising a new way to visualize data.