Signals

56 numbers the site tracks — and, for each one, what it actually counts and what would move it.

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The 27 signals with a written explanation.

Births TodayThe global birth rate has roughly halved since 1960. Population is still growing mostly because people are living longer and because there are so many people already of childbearing age — not because families are getting larger.
Deaths TodayDeaths per day are rising even as death rates fall, because the population is both larger and older. A rising number here is compatible with people living longer than ever.
Population Growth TodayThis is births minus deaths. The rate peaked around 1963 and has been falling since; most projections have it reaching zero this century.
Hunger-Related Child Deaths TodayThe world grows enough food. Hunger at this scale is a distribution and income failure, not a production one — which is why it tracks conflict and currency collapse more closely than it tracks harvests.
Child Deaths Under Five TodayChild mortality has fallen faster than almost any other human indicator — roughly a threefold reduction since 1990. It remains one of the clearest measures of whether a health system reaches ordinary people.
People Newly Displaced TodayMost displaced people never cross a border, and most who do stay in a neighbouring country. The image of displacement as long-distance migration to wealthy countries describes a small fraction of it.
CO₂ Emitted TodayThis counter is a flow — how much we add. The number that actually determines how much heat the planet keeps is the stock: how much is already up there, which instruments measure directly.has a measured counterpart
Forest Cleared TodayForest loss is counted in hectares because area is what a satellite can see. What is actually lost — soil that stays put, rain that falls downwind, species with nowhere else to be — has no unit.
Forest Regrown TodayForest returns at about half the rate it is cleared, and the two hectares are not equivalent. Regrowth stores a fraction of the carbon of the mature forest it follows, and a plantation counted as reforestation can hold a tiny share of the species that lived in what it replaced.
Food Wasted TodayRoughly a third of all food produced is never eaten. It is not only the food that is wasted — it is the land it grew on, the water it drank, the fuel that moved it, and the methane it makes when it rots.
Freshwater Withdrawn TodayMost water use is invisible from a tap. Agriculture takes roughly seventy per cent of all freshwater withdrawn, so the biggest lever on water is what we eat, not how long we shower.
Ocean Fish Caught TodayGlobal catch stopped growing decades ago even as fishing effort kept rising. More boats, more fuel and better electronics now bring in roughly the same fish.
Land Lost to Desertification TodayDesertification is usually not a desert advancing. It is productive land degrading in place, driven more by how the land is managed than by rainfall.
Ice Lost TodayIce mass and sea ice are different stories. This is grounded ice — Greenland and Antarctica — and losing it raises sea level. Sea ice is already floating, so when it melts the sea does not rise; it just stops reflecting sunlight.has a measured counterpart
Ocean Heat Absorbed TodayThe ocean has absorbed the overwhelming majority of the extra heat trapped so far. That is why the air has warmed as little as it has — and why the warming already committed does not stop when emissions do.
Soil Lost to Erosion TodaySoil forms at something like a centimetre a century and is being lost far faster than that. It is the slowest-renewing resource in agriculture and the one least often counted.
Coral Reef Lost TodayReefs cover well under one per cent of the ocean floor and support a quarter of all marine species. They are also the ecosystem most sensitive to the heat the ocean is absorbing.
Human-Caused Methane Emitted TodayMethane traps far more heat than CO₂ but leaves the atmosphere within about a decade. That makes it the only greenhouse gas where cutting emissions changes temperatures on a human timescale rather than a geological one.has a measured counterpart
Cardiovascular Deaths TodayCardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, and the majority of those deaths are in low- and middle-income countries rather than wealthy ones.
Air Pollution Deaths TodayAir pollution kills more people than road traffic, and most of it comes from the same combustion that produces the CO₂ counter on this site. Cutting one cuts the other.
Military Spending TodayGlobal military spending is larger than the combined economies of most countries. It is presented here next to what the world spends on health and education because the comparison is the point.
Fossil Fuel Subsidies TodayThe world spends more supporting fossil fuel consumption than most countries spend on health. It is the rare climate lever that saves money rather than costing it.
Oil Pumped TodayOil is not only fuel. A significant and growing share becomes plastic, fertiliser and chemicals — which is why oil demand does not simply follow the number of electric cars.
Plastic Produced TodayRoughly half of all plastic ever made was made this century, and the great majority of it has never been recycled. Production, not disposal, is where the number is decided.
Google Searches TodaySearch volume is one of the few real-time signals of collective human attention — which is why public search trend data has been used to track everything from flu outbreaks to unemployment.
Emails Sent TodayThe overwhelming majority of email is spam or automated. The number is less a measure of human communication than of how cheap it is to send something to everyone.
AI Tokens Processed TodayEvery token has a physical cost: electricity, water for cooling, and hardware that was mined and will be discarded. AI's footprint is a data-centre footprint, and it is growing faster than the grid is decarbonising.

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Every number here is an estimate. The measured readings — the ones an instrument produced — are on the observed page.