Here are 35 of the most interesting facts and stats I came across this year! 🧵 1. In the United States there are 8 parking spots for every car.

(via @Bill_Gross)

Recently, I decided I wanted to read every page of one of my favorite websites, @OurWorldInData.

I’m about halfway now.

Here are the 30 most surprising things I’ve learned about the world so far! 🧵 1. Almost all countries in Africa have higher death rates from obesity than in Western Europe and the USA!

This is due to more advanced medical care in the developed world, as well as other risk factors, such as smoking and air pollution.

Thinking back to the early days of The Ocean Cleanup, our main job was to get things done with no $.

We didn’t have money to access professional scale model testing facilities, so we got permission to use a local pool for a night, in which we constructed our own wave generator. My university was kind enough to provide us with office space. It did not have any heating and was smaller than the legal limit of a Dutch prison, but we didn't complain: we had an office!

These are my favorite books I read this year. What were yours? 🧵 The Alchemy of Air by @Thomas_Hager: excellent account of arguably the most fundamental (and under-appreciated) innovation of the 20th century; our ability to fixate nitrogen from the air through the Haber-Bosch process, feeding billions of people.

Getting questions about @seaspiracy and the stat that 46% of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is fishing nets.

I can confirm this is true - I am a co-author of that study.

Yet this doesn't necessarily mean that 46% of what enters the oceans is from fishing [THREAD🧵] In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) we observe a very specific composition of trash: almost everything is 'thick' plastic. You see buoys, bottles and toothbrushes, but hardly any plastic bags or other household packaging (while this is the dominant type in river trash).

What has been the favorite book you’ve read this year? 📚

These were mine: Doing the Impossible by Arthur Slotkin - If you want to understand how NASA managed to get people on the moon, read this book. Contains valuable lessons on testing strategies and project management that are still relevant today.

Have been quite surprised by the number of people rejoicing the “positive” environmental effects of the COVID pandemic. Not only do I find it morally questionable to rejoice something that causes so much suffering, but is it even true? 1/6 It is indeed the case that air pollution has reduced and CO2 emission have gone down during the past few months. But there is no reason to believe why these emissions wouldn’t go back to pre-pandemic levels once the storm has passed.