I actually have been planning a separate post on circular cartograms for a while now, but need to finish some things up on it (which may take a while).  In the meantime, this came across my "desk" and thought I would share.  It is a circular cartogram infographic produced by The Guardian.  Now, the blog Junk Charts generally takes offense at anything classified as a "bubble chart."  This isn't a bubble chart, but a circular cartogram.  For the most part, Junk Charts follows Tufte's self-sufficiency principal.  Personally, I think circular cartograms may be used to great affect when used appropriately, and surprisingly well for certain time-series information.  For example, with the NYTimes olympic medals map.  If we ignore the labeling on this cartogram for a moment, then what this is trying to show does work on some level:  distribution of largest emitters of CO2.  Now add the labels back.  WTF?  What in the world were they thinking?  It doesn't make any sense.  They've mixed ranking with actual CO2 emissions!  There isn't even an attempt at different typeface or size to distinguish these.  So yes, in my opinion this is a 'junk chart.'  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no infographic expert and make my fair share of poorly constructed maps :), but it is really surprising that a professional organization would make something so poorly.  Either way, I like the effort of using a cartogram, and I still like circular cartograms as a communication tool.

A little better job on this version though, and easier to distinguish between rank and emission.