Despite the speed that information travels these days, tangible products still must be shipped. This map shows the beautiful tangle that commercialized shipping routes make in our globalized world. 

The European Commission Global Environment Monitoring Unit created the map for a study on the accessibility of different parts of the world based on data by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California. Distance from shipping routes is just one of the several factors they looked at to determine the accessibility of a location.

In this map, the commercial relationship between North America and Asia can be seen by the thick collection of lines between the two continents. Europe and North Americas' exchange of goods is also illustrated with dense threads connecting the two via the Atlantic Ocean. Just goes to show, most of us may not traverse the waters much, but the oceans and seas of the world still feel the impact of human life.

European Commission

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Serena Dai