Global temperatures chart 1850-2020

Here is the global temperature chart for the whole planet, from 1850 to 2020.

See what is the inheritance I am leaving to my daughter?

It’s so scary…. Just have a look at how fast the atmosphere has warmed up in the past 30 years.

If we consider 1850 the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and hence the beginning of the massive release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from our enormous use of energy from fossil fuels and biomass, we can observe in the chart that it took around 70-80 years for the atmosphere to start warming up. This means that natural cycles were able to compensate for the exponential increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. But then, a bit before 1930 when my father was born, the natural systems started giving in. WWII and a natural decrease were the cause for a smaller relief that continued into the 50’s and 60’s, but then by the mid 70’s, just after I was born, things started heating up steadily. 1980 was the year when the first red stripes appeared. Then the real hell of a read exponential curve unfolded.

My daughter was born during these last 6 years when the red has started to become purple.

We are breaking heat records year after year. Yesterday Moscow had a record temperature of 34.8 degrees C, while the Death Valley in the US recorded 54 degrees C.

Even if we stopped pouring greenhouses gases into the atmosphere overnight today, it would take decades before the exponential curve would start leveling off and temperatures would start lowering. But because we will not stop doing it, temperatures will not stop getting higher.

Have a look at the CarbonBrief website to see what the world will look like at 1.5, 2 and 3 degrees C higher than pre-industrial levels. We are already close to the 1.5 degree point. We will live to see also the 2 degree point, and our children will also see the 3 degrees. But their world will be hell compared to what we have lived in until now.