NASA Climate Spiral 1880-Present

Released Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Last updated Wednesday, April 15, 2026 at 4:39 PM EDT
Visualizations by: Mark SubbaRao

The visualization presents monthly global temperature anomalies. This visualization is updated roughly two weeks after the end of each month.

Temperature anomalies are deviations from a long term global average. In this case the period 1951-1980 is used to define the baseline for the anomaly. These temperatures are based on the GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP v4), an estimate of global surface temperature change. The data file used to create this visualization is publicly accessible here.

The term 'climate spiral' describes an animated radial plot of global temperatures. Climate scientist Ed Hawkins from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Reading popularized this style of visualization in 2016.

The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.

Link to NASA page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5190/

BEAUTY: Photography--Omar Victor Diop

Fine art photographer Omar Victor Diop created his Allegoria series to invite us to think critically about environmental justice, anthropocentricism, and our collective and individual responsibilities in securing more viable, liveable futures. His self portraits show him with species that are extinct or will certainly be in the next few decades, as well as referencing landscapes (and food) that are in peril. The artist's website says his work's "dramatic renditions borrow openly from different genres that include classical painting, universal religious iconography, and mid-century West African photographic studio portraiture, as well as Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock compositions from the Edo period—'pictures of the floating world.'"

https://www.omarvictor.com/

Climate Catastrophe Change In A Chart

UK climate data scientist has charted the monthly/yearly change in global temperature from 1851 to 2020. We have always known it is not good news and here is the chart...

https://twitter.com/neilrkaye

A Series Of Interconnected Disasters

Yes.

Burning

We're on fire.
Climate Catastrophe is real.
Science is real.
Climate is different from weather.
This is not a "process" that is natural. It has not happened before.We are seeing Climate Catastrophe happen right before us. Everything that was predicted 20 years ago is happening now. Just as climatologists thought it would.

I was evacuated from my home, not knowing if it would survive or burn.
I have seen raining ash.
I have seen a dim sun in an orange sky.
I have struggled to breathe in air thick with smoke.
It is real.

BEAUTY: Photography--Hayden Williams

American photographer Hayden Williams addresses our Climate Catastrophe--and the immense frustration with the lack of acknowledgement of environmental problems, something very apparent in the US under a president who is a notorious climate change sceptic--in his series World Underwater.

In an interview with It's Nice That, Hayden said, "The spark that ignited this series was a trip to Venice. While travelling there I learned how the city is frequently flooded. It surprised me learning how Venice prepares, defends, and inevitably repairs itself from unforgiving tides. I began to imagine, 'what if the rest of the world lived like this?'

I usually have a very clear image in mind when I imagine a photograph I want to take or a scene I want to render. I imagined the two 'Pipe Dream' images of flooded subway trains when I was daydreaming about my move to New York for an internship. The subway is something many people are familiar with, so I thought it would be the perfect subject to flood.

Climate change is an obvious problem, and I find it absolutely ridiculous how many continue to deny its existence. We should be talking about how to solve it, but instead we somehow have to convince half of the world that there is something that needs to be solved in the first place."

I agree. Leaders and governments and businesses wasted nearly 30 years denying that our house is really on fire. It started in the basement, it is almost done consuming the ground floor (the images of the devastation in Australia and NSW have broken my heart), and it is about to start burning on the top floor. That is 30 years where solutions could have been proposed and implemented. How much farther along would we be right now if we had had that time? But no, financial greed and conservative/religious ignorance allowed the fire to grow. There's not much to mitigate anymore. The damage has been done and we are looking at a very grim future.

https://www.haydenclay.com/

Algae Brings Hope!

Hypergiant Industries bills themselves as the AI industrial complex for leading global enterprises and governments, helping major institutions innovate with breakthrough machine intelligence-driven technology. In fact, their motto is "Tomorrowing today."

And they seem to be earning their reputation with this amazing invention, an algae-based bioreactor that can suck as much carbon dioxide from the air as an acre of forest. The working prototype 3’x3’x7′ structure is intended for use in urban environments where it can fit within office buildings, connecting with an HVAC system to reduce CO2 levels inside and release cleaner air. Algae thrive on carbon dioxide emissions making it one of nature’s most efficient tools for carbon capture and sequestration. It could play a critical role in the sustainability of human life in our ecosystem.

It's inspiring to see such solutions being not only proposed but created and implemented. This along with the much-talked of process of driving CO2 into the ground makes me think that the human race might have a chance after all.

https://www.hypergiant.com/

Products Of Tomorrow

The Nature Conservancy has designed what they are calling "Products Of Tomorrow."

Based on our current trajectory and climate change, land and drinkable water will be scarce, producing droughts and famines. Couple this with political and social calamities stemming from what is happening now. This is the likely outcome.

It doesn't have to be like this. Visit The Nature Conservancy website for more info.

https://www.nature.org/

"4 Degrees" by Anohni

Antony Hegarty (previously here) has transitioned and is now known as Anohni. And her first release under her new name is "ANOHNI: HOPELESSNESS" out in the spring of 2016. In an interview with a fan site, she said, "The record is as different as could be from my previous work. I am not sure that many of you who prefer the early chamber music style will enjoy it! It is a dance / experimental electronic record with quite a dark thematic undertow. It is an album I felt very compelled to produce."

And you can't get darker than this view of climate change. The title of this song, "4 degrees," references a 2015 study which found that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current pace, the Earth's temperature will rise by four degrees Celsius by the end of the century, threatening one-sixth of the world's species with extinction. To make a point, Anohni here wears the attitude of someone who insists that a global difference of 4 degrees is inconsequential. But if one blithely takes that position, then one must accept the inevitable, violent consequences which she outlines in the painful, shocking lyrics. The music too is large, urgent, and unrelenting. She says, "I have grown tired of grieving for humanity, and I also thought I was not being entirely honest by pretending that I am not a part of the problem. 4 Degrees is kind of a brutal attempt to hold myself accountable, not just valorize my intentions but also reflect on the true impact of my behaviors."

>

It's only 4 degrees, it's only 4 degrees
It's only 4 degrees, it's only 4 degrees

I wanna see this world, I wanna see it boil
I wanna see this world, I wanna see it boil
It's only 4 degrees, it's only 4 degrees
It's only 4 degrees, it's only 4 degrees

I wanna hear the dogs crying for water
I wanna see fish go belly-up in the sea
All those lemurs and all those tiny creatures
I wanna see them burn, it's only 4 degrees

And all those rhinos and all those big mammals
I wanna see them lying, crying in the fields

(I want to see them burn)

I wanna see them burn, it's only 4 degrees
I wanna see them burn, it's only 4 degrees

I wanna burn them, I wanna burn them
I wanna burn them, I wanna burn them

I wanna burn the sky, I wanna burn the breeze
I wanna see the animals die in the trees
Oh let's go, let's go it's only 4 degrees
Oh let's go, let's go it's only 4 degrees
Oh let's go, let's go it's only 4 degrees
Oh let's go, let's go it's only 4 degrees

I wanna burn them, I wanna burn them
I wanna burn them, I wanna burn them

http://www.antonyandthejohnsons.com/

We've got 5-10 years...

IMPORTANT VIEWING.

David Roberts is a staff writer at Grist.org. In "Climate Change is Simple" recorded on April 16, 2012 at TEDxTheEvergreenStateCollege, he describes the causes and effects of climate change in blunt, plain terms.

Is it too late?

Things To Come

"This week, our nation has anxiously watched as Hurricane Sandy lashed the East Coast and caused widespread damage--affecting millions. Now more than ever, our neighbors need our help. Please consider donating or volunteering for your local aid organizations. The images of Sandy’s flooding brought back memories of a similar--albeit smaller scale-- event in Nashville just two years ago. There, unprecedented rainfall caused widespread flooding, wreaking havoc and submerging sections of my hometown. For me, the Nashville flood was a milestone. For many, Hurricane Sandy may prove to be a similar event: a time when the climate crisis—which is often sequestered to the far reaches of our everyday awareness became a reality. Sandy was also affected by other symptoms of the climate crisis. As the hurricane approached the East Coast, it gathered strength from abnormally warm coastal waters. At the same time, Sandy's storm surge was worsened by a century of sea level rise. Scientists tell us that if we do not reduce our emissions, these problems will only grow worse. Hurricane Sandy is a disturbing sign of things to come. We must heed this warning and act quickly to solve the climate crisis. Dirty energy makes dirty weather."
--Al Gore, writing on his personal blog.

Is "the jury still out" now? How much more proof do we need?

BEAUTY: Art--John Brosio

I am absolutely struck by John Brosio's terror-inducing tornado paintings. He has captured a moment in history that will haunt us for hundreds of years to come. People stand idly by, stroll the streets of their isolated and insulated small town, and children play outside, while the effects of extreme climate change devour us, destroy the land, and turn our world into an uninhabitable nightmare. The fact that there are still people who seem to be willfully ignorant and dangerously stubborn in their denial of what is happening to our continent and to the world boggles my mind. I have heard many of these people try to reassure themselves by saying foolish inanities such as, "Oh, 'God' would never let anything bad happen to us." Or they seek to lay blame on the idea that their "God" is somehow angry with humans for some kind of perceived transgressions related to their own religious beliefs, and that therefore "God" punishes the American mid-west and south with tornadoes, hurricanes, and drought. Those people are the ones who scare me the most; the ones who can hide behind superstitions and sanctimonious moralizing, as we all create this mess.

What is going to happen to us?

Top to bottom: After School; Cleaning; Edge Of Town; Edge Of Town 4; Oklahoma Twister; Scouring; Study for Terrarium; The Quickening; Unforgiven

http://www.johnbrosio.com/index.html