Information is beautiful? Great. Because the news is still bad. 

As Taschen launches the ultimate flick-book book for data addicts, here are the world's most complex and critical environmental issues, visualised through a selection of no-nonsense infographics, borrowed from the new monumental atlas, Understanding the World. In the baffling culture of big data, beautiful and effective visualisations give access and push forward the planet's life stories that are hidden within the numbers. Unsurprisingly, it does look all that great. It's the (provisional) survival of the richest out there: take a look at the slides above to find out how the far we'd get if we all ate like America, and which country's citizens, really, tax the earth the most. 

Throughout the 400-plus pages of the Taschen encyclopedia (which covers more than the state of the environment), culled from the finest in graphic journalism, the design game is pretty much at its top. For Dazed's own take on numbers and percentages, check out what we did for our Sex Survey results – the largest anonymous surveys on the kinks and habits of the digital generation.