I’m trying something different in this post: an infographic.

Over the last couple of years I’ve been reading a lot about climate change. One thing I’ve learned is that the science of climate change is not new.

Scientists have been warning us for well over a century that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity will warm our planet. Their warnings have become increasingly urgent as researchers have developed deeper and more precise scientific knowledge about how we’re impacting Earth’s climate.

I’ve put together this timeline showing key milestones in our evolving understanding of climate change, its human origins and the consequences we face.

Notes

1. Wikipedia contributors, “Eunice Newton Foote,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eunice_Newton_Foote&oldid=1162996595 (accessed July 9, 2023).
2. Schwartz, John. Overlooked No More: Eunice Foote, Climate Scientist Lost to History. New York Times. April 27, 2020.
3. Wikipedia contributors, “John Tyndall,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Tyndall&oldid=1162754220 (accessed July 9, 2023).
4. Wikipedia contributors, “Svante Arrhenius,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Svante_Arrhenius&oldid=1162088456 (accessed July 9, 2023).
5. The Keeling Curve, Scripps Institute of Oceanography (accessed June 29, 2023).
6. Hall, Shannon. Exxon Knew about Climate Change almost 40 years ago. Scientific American, October 26, 2015.
   Photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash
7. Wikipedia contributors, “James Hansen,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Hansen&oldid=1163238569 (accessed July 9, 2023).
8. IPCC, 1990: Overview. In: Climate Change: The 1990 and 1992 IPCC Assessments. IPCC First Assessment Report Overview and Policymaker Summaries and 1992 IPCC Supplement. p. 52.
9. IPCC, 1995: Climate Change 1995: A report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. p. 4.
10. IPCC, 2001: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report. A Contribution of Working Groups I, II, and III to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Watson, R.T. and the Core Writing Team (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, and New York, NY, USA. p. 4.
11. IPCC, 2007: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, Pachauri, R.K and Reisinger, A. (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland. p. 2.
12. IPCC, 2014: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland. p. 2.
13. IPCC, 2018: Summary for Policymakers. In: Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J.B.R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157940.001. p. 4
14. IPCC 2023: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. A Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland. p. 4.
15. Ibid. p. 12.

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Here’s a downloadable PDF version:

I’ve never done an infographic before and it’s been fun putting this one together.

What do you think? Is it clear? Interesting? Helpful?

I’d like to do more of these. Any suggestions for future infographics you’d like to see? Especially related to climate change.

Please let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks!