Earth’s Rising Temperature With Tableau Charts
Global warming is the unusually rapid increase in Earth’s average surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released as people burn fossil fuels.
According to Wikipedia, Global warming became the most popular term after NASA climate scientist James Hansen used it in his 1988 testimony in the U.S. Senate. In the 2000s, the term climate change increased in popularity. Global warming and Climate change are often used interchangeably.
Climate scientists tend not to report climate results in whole temperatures. Instead, they talk about how the annual temperature departs from an average, or baseline. They call these departures “anomalies.” They do this because temperature anomalies are more consistent in an area than absolute temperatures are.
In this article, we will perform basic visualiazation with Tableau to show how much warmer or colder a region is compared to the norm for that region from 1951–1980.The NASA data used in this article was sourced from makeovermonday.
Decade by decade, global temperatures continue to rise. Use the chart below to explore how temperature has trended yearly and by decade from the 1880s to 2020.
Data from NASA shows the Earth gradually heating up since the late 19th century. Since the year 2000, this trend seems to have accelerated as shown in the visualization of the data above. The data illustrate that 2020 tied with 2016 as the hottest year on record, with an average temperature of 1.37 degrees Celsius warmer than the historical baseline measure (1951–1980 baseline mean). Blue indicates an observation below the mean, while red shows above the mean.
In the visualization above, the years from 1880 to 1939 tend to appear cooler (more blues than reds), growing less cool into the 1950s. The leveling off between the 1950s and 1970s may be explained by natural variability and possibly by the cooling effects of some aerosols generated by the rapid economic growth after World War II.
Monthly Trends of Temperature Anomalies Over the Years
Temperature anomaly means a departure from a reference value or long-term average. A positive anomaly indicates that the observed temperature was cooler than the reference value while a negative anomaly indicates that the observed temperature was hotter than the reference value.
In the visualization above, February 2016 tied with April 2020 for the warmest month and year on record. While the coldest month recorded was July 1904 with an average temperature of -0.5 degrees Celsius. This is because the years from 1880 to 1910 are at the pre-industrial level.
Hemisphere & Year Effects on Temperature Anomalies
The Earth globe is divided into 2 hemisphere, the Northern Hemisphere (the half that lies north of the equator) and the Southern Hemisphere (the half that lies south of the equator). In the chart above, the Northern Hemisphere has a higher maximum temperature (1.36 in degrees Celsius) recorded compared to the Southern Hemisphere (0.75 in degrees Celsius).
The observation shows that the Northern Hemisphere is more prone to Global warming when compared to the Southern Hemisphere. In 2020, the Northern Hemisphere warmed at double the rate of the Southern Hemisphere. The temperature anomaly has increased drastically after the 1990s in both hemispheres. This is a result of rapid industrialization, deforestation, modern transportation. Greenhouse gases are the scariest byproduct of all the above factors which is causing Global warming at a much higher rate.
Seasons & Year Effects on Temperature Anomalies
From the chart above, in the temperature anomaly of years since 1880, winter temperature is naturally below the mean of the reference period, Summer temperatures are naturally above the base period mean but have been diverging further and further from it.
Average Summer and Winter Temperature in the Southern and Northern Hemisphere Over The Years.
From the chart above, we observe that the Northern Hemisphere has a lower temperature anomaly during the winter than it does during the summer and Southern Hemisphere has a lower temperature anomaly during winter than it does during summer. This is because when a hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, it receives less solar radiation than the opposite hemisphere, which at that time is pointed toward the Sun. Thus, despite the closer proximity of the Sun at the winter solstice, the Northern Hemisphere receives less solar radiation during the winter than it does during the summer.
The effect of global warming and climate change cannot be over-emphasized ranging from the sea levels rising to oceans becoming warmer. Longer, more intense droughts threaten crops, wildlife, and freshwater supplies. From polar bears in the Arctic to marine turtles off the coast of Africa, our planet’s diversity of life is at risk from the changing climate.
As humans, every aspect of our life is reliant on the natural environment. This includes the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the clothes we wear, and the products that are made and sold to create jobs and drive the economy.
A healthy and stable climate is our most precious natural resource, therefore we must all be involved in making awareness and taking action to save the earth.
Summary
- The Earth has been heating up since the 19th century, according to data from NASA.
- Since the year 2000, this trend seems to have accelerated.
- 2020 is predicted to be the hottest year on record.
- This spike in temperature could have catastrophic consequences for the planet.
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Resources
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/global-temperatures
https://www.britannica.com/science/climate-change
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-whats-warming-the-world/
