Climate change

This article reflects the most conservative picture painted by the IPCC based on linear projections - not the full story

Six Graphs Tell the Climate Change Story

Boomer Warrior,

7 November, 2014

The central message of the latest IPCC report is stark and clear. Humanity must phase out fossil fuels by 2050 to avoid dangerous run-away climate change. The Synthesis Report reinforces what three previous reports released in the last year have already highlighted – the causes (physical science of climate change), the impacts on natural and human systems and the solutions to tackle climate change.

Six Graphs Tell the Climate Change Story

The following 6 graphs from the report illustrate how we have changed the world’s climate.

Graph 1. Change in surface temperature between 1901-2012. Our world has generally become hotter with only a few minor exceptions as shown by the blue sections. Warming is unequivocal and the human influence on climate is clear.

Map of the observed surface temperature change, from 1901 to 2012, derived from temperature trends determined by linear regression from one data set Photograph: IPCC

Graph 2. 13 of the 14 warmest years ever recorded occurred this century. The top panel shows annual mean values and the bottom panel shows the decadal mean values. Since the 1950s the observed changes are unprecedented. The period from 1983 to 2012 was likely the warmest 30 year period of the last 1,400 years.

Observed global mean combined land and ocean surface temperature anomalies, from 1850 to 2012 from three data sets. Top panel: annual mean values. Bottom panel: decadal mean values including the estimate of uncertainty for one dataset (black). Anomalies are relative to the mean of 1961−1990 Photograph: Average global temperatures – IPCC

Graph 3. It’s going to get much worse. Our planet has already warmed by 0.7C since the industrial revolution due to greenhouse gases. The map on the left assumes a significant cut in emissions whereas the map on right illustrates a business-as-usual pumping of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere

Projections for increase in average temperatures in 2081– 2100, above late 20th-century average temperature Photograph: IPCC

Graph 4. “The rate of sea level rise since the mid-19th century has been larger than the mean rate during the previous two millennia”, indicates the Synthesis Report.

Global mean sea level, relative to the 1900–1905 mean of the longest running dataset. There are four datasets, each marked by a different colour. Photograph: IPCC

Graph 5. New research shows that the melting of Arctic ice is being linked to more severe weather patterns around the globe

Graph 5. New research shows that the melting of Arctic ice is being linked to more severe weather patterns around the globe

Extent of Arctic July-August-September (summer) average sea ice Photograph: IPCC

Graph 6. Why this is all happening. GHG emissions are now growing at twice the rate of the previous 30 years. Without concerted action on carbon, temperatures will increase over the coming decades and could be almost 5C above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century.

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Global mean sea level, relative to the 1900–1905 mean of the longest running dataset. There are four datasets, each marked by a different colour. Photograph: IPCC