The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has produced a visualization that shows the change in the globally averaged monthly air temperature from 1850 to the present relative to the 1850-1900 average. It also extends the visualization for temperature predictions to the year 2100 based on model RCP8.5 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Of all the scenarios considered by the IPCC, RCP8.5 is the one with the highest greenhouse gas emissions, leading to an average atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration of well over 900 parts per million (ppm) by 2100 (in 2015 the concentration was around 400 ppm), as well as strong increases in concentrations of other greenhouse gases such as methane. This visualization therefore represents the upper limit of current predictions for warming over the next century.

This USGS visualization is based on an original visualization by E. Hawkins from Reading University, UK.

Click here to access the USGS visualization of global temperature change.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey