Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft: Bildstatistisches Elementarwerk - Waldbestand in Eurasien [14080.037]
The pattern
This still is filed under Data as proof.
Define
A chart, map, or count that is the argument, not an illustration next to the argument.
Mechanism
Sighted evidence. The reader is asked to believe their eyes: a bar, a share, a spread on a map.
Verdict
The claim is comparative or quantitative and the figure can be read without a caption doing the sell.
Why it works
The legend does the argumentative work: by giving felled forest and presumed former forest their own colours, the plate shows loss as a positive mark on the map instead of leaving it as blank ground. Ranking the four bands by certainty - known, provable, presumed, loose zone - lets the designer publish weak data without pretending it is strong. The map is reduced to one variable and one background colour, so the green mass and the yellow scar are the only things competing for attention. The hard rectangular crop keeps the eye inside the data field and refuses the decorative flourish of a coastline vignette.
Steal this when
Steal this when you need to show what has been lost, not just what remains, and the loss has no natural shape of its own. The graded-certainty legend is the right move whenever part of your data is inferred and you would otherwise have to either hide it or overstate it.