Global average surface temperature rise above pre-industrial levels (1850–1900 baseline). The last decade was the hottest in approximately 125,000 years.
NASA GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP v4). Each bar shows the annual deviation from the 1951–1980 baseline average. The trend is unmistakable.
Post-1980 Acceleration: Since 1980, global temperatures have risen at roughly 0.20°C per decade — more than double the rate of the previous century (0.08°C per decade, 1880–1980). The 2016 and 2020 El Niño years pushed anomalies above +1.0°C for the first time in the instrumental record.
Temperature rise varies dramatically by region. The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the global average — a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification.
Arctic amplification driven by sea ice loss and the ice-albedo feedback loop. Winter temperatures in parts of the Arctic have risen over 6°C.
Europe is the fastest-warming inhabited continent. Summer heatwaves are now 10× more likely due to climate change.
Oceans have absorbed 90% of excess heat. Marine heatwaves have doubled in frequency since 1982, devastating coral reefs worldwide.
Atmospheric CO₂ has risen from ~280 ppm in pre-industrial times to over 420 ppm today — a level not seen in at least 2 million years. The correlation with temperature rise is one of the strongest signals in all of science.
R² = 0.89. Temperature anomaly and atmospheric CO₂ are correlated with near-perfect statistical significance. While correlation does not equal causation alone, this relationship is backed by 170+ years of atmospheric physics dating back to Tyndall (1859) and Arrhenius (1896).
GISTEMP v4 surface temperature analysis. Land-ocean temperature index (LOTI) combining meteorological station data with satellite SST measurements since 1880.
View Source →Continuous atmospheric CO₂ measurements from Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii. The longest-running CO₂ monitoring station in the world (since 1958).
View Source →The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Definitive synthesis of climate science from thousands of peer-reviewed studies.
View Source →