EVERY SECOND

What goes on around the world in every tick of the clock?

In this graphically stylish exploration of what might happen in a second, Gibert goes for hard numbers rather than the dreamy imaginings of horizon expanders such as Kathleen Rice Bowers’ At This Very Minute, illustrated by Linda Shute (1983), or Isabel Minhós Martins’ The World in a Second, illustrated by Bernardo P. Carvalho and translated by Lyn Miller-Lachman (2015). The author pores over nearly three dozen recently published official statistical reports (all listed in the backmatter) and does some math. He offers a few small figures for each elapsed second (one wedding, two serious car accidents, four new babies) but many more big ones: 100 lightning bolts; 3,000,000 email messages; 47,000 gallons of oil extracted; and 1,050,000 gallons of cow gas emitted “from both ends.” Most telling are the juxtapositions: $860 invested in humanitarian aid opposite $57,700 in arms sales; 20,000 plastic bottles produced versus 1,600 recycled; 485 trees cut down but just 158 replanted. Where relevant, each number is presented in both English and metric measures (the latter parenthetically), and each is paired to a full-page or larger illustration done in a serigraphic style, mostly featuring relevant shapes or silhouettes. Human images are rare but diverse.

A long, long way from comprehensive—but still fodder for serious thought and discussion.