Jump directly to a material, regional account or named facility.
ABOUT OVERSHOOT · A GAIA AI PRODUCT
See how the human-made world works.
We are building the ultimate atlas of material flows on planet Earth. OVERSHOOT connects materials, places and processes to give people a comprehensive view of the world we make—from the ground beneath us to the things around us, and onward through reuse and return.
Start anywhere. Keep connecting the dots.
ONE JOURNEY · UNITED STATES · 2025
From Wyoming mines to Alabama electricity.
Coal from four Wyoming mines travels by rail to the James H. Miller Jr. power plant in Alabama. Monthly fuel receipts connect the named mines with the generating plant; annual generation records reveal the next transformation, from fuel into electricity. Explore the source locations, delivery quantities and power generation together.
HOW THE PIECES FIT
One planet. An interconnected material world.
Every object belongs to a larger story. Follow its material back to the source, across the places where it changes form, and forward into the systems that use, recover or discard it.
ExtractionMines, quarries, forests and fields bring materials from the living planet into human use.
Making & movementRefineries, furnaces and factories transform materials. Ports, railways and trade networks connect the places that make and use them.
Use & accumulationMaterials become buildings, infrastructure, tools and products. Some stay in use for generations.
Discard & returnAfter use, materials move through collection, repair, reuse, recovery and disposal. Follow what returns to circulation and what remains in the environment.
INSPIRED BY MATERIAL WORLD · ED CONWAY
Begin with a substance. Discover a world.
Ed Conway’s Material World (2023) reveals global stories through sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. That perspective helps shape OVERSHOOT’s stories. Our maps and measurements draw on independently attributed data from research institutions, public agencies and operators.
Choose your way into the world
See the connections at every scale.
Places where materials change.
Open a map marker to explore its operation, coordinates, measurements and original source.
Networks that move the world.
Explore country trade connections and named industrial networks. Each connection brings together its places, material form, transport mode and source records.
From the local to the planetary.
Move between nearby operations, regional systems and national accounts to see how your place fits into the wider material world.
The landscape around the flow.
Add dated imagery and environmental layers. Switch between flat and globe views to explore the geography around each material journey.
Sources behind the world view.
The atlas brings together geolocated operations, material accounts, production histories, trade connections, waste systems and transport activity. Original publishers, dates, units and measurement methods accompany the records, so you can explore a story and take its sources further.
OVERSHOOT BY GAIA AI
A comprehensive vision of the material world.
Our ambition is to make humanity’s material metabolism visible and understandable: where things come from, how they become useful, where they travel and what happens after use. Bring your questions, explore the connections and help shape the atlas as it grows.
The connects the same source-backed records to compatible research tools.
About Overshoot: sources, methods & how to explore
A planetary atlas of material flows