(To enlarge the above, click on this link)
From Scientific American and Wired, a map --actually 167 of them--for your Climate Denier friends to contemplate.
When it comes to explaining climate change, it helps to have clear, convincing evidence on hand. Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading with a knack for data-visualization, specializes in precisely this kind of evidence.
Hawkins produced the now-famous graphic depicting measured, historical monthly global temperatures as an ever-expanding spiral, a visual reminder of the fact that warming temperatures are increasing at an exponential pace. Called “the most compelling climate visualization ever made,” Hawkins’ animation (which made a recent appearance at the recent Rio Olympics), is credited with introducing millions of people to the consequences of unchecked greenhouse gas emissions.
The Hawkins “spiral” (updated) can be viewed here.
The graphic at the top of this article, while less abstract than the spiral, is just as effective from a visual standpoint. Using a technique called “small multiples,” which encourages not only side-by-side comparison of similar data graphics but also an appreciation of the overall whole, Hawkins created 167 maps of the average temperature anomaly (+/- 2.5 Degrees Celsius) from the years 1850-2016 using surface temperature data from the Met Office Hadley Centre datasets, combining them into a single chart. NASA has done something similar in mapping the diminishing polar sea ice.
Each map is divided into pixels ranging from dark blue (cool) to deep red (hot), based on a 1961-1990 reference period. Gray areas indicate insufficient data was available, which is why a lot of the early years depicted are mostly gray. As our record-keeping has improved over time, there are less and less “gray areas.”
Once you understand what you’re looking at (clicking on this link enlarges the above map), you can see patterns such as the path of the 1997-1998 El Nino, and rapid Arctic warming over the past twenty years.
The visualization couldn’t be more straightforward: As the years progress, the number and intensity of the red-colored cells increases. Slowly at first, then dramatically from around the 1980s onward. “It’s useful for presenting a simple message: the world is getting warmer,” Hawkins says.
The pronounced increase in warming throughout every portion of the globe during the past three decades, due to the human race filling the atmosphere with more and more carbon pollution, is the most striking feature of Hawkins’ new graphic:
The fact that each map is further divided into pixels helps drive the message home. “That nearly every region has warmed links to people’s everyday experiences in their own location, and makes climate change more relevant on an individual level,” Hawkins says.
Most of us in the U.S. with memories that go back for 30 years or more have already reached that conclusion in our own “everyday experiences.” What Hawkins vividly shows in this graphic is how everyone, everywhere, is being impacted, as each year becomes warmer than the last.