A lot of numbers get tossed around in discussions about climate change. Degrees of warming, meters of sea level rise, square miles burnt or flooded, and most important, tons of greenhouse gases emitted.

I like to know exactly what these numbers mean and how they’re calculated but sometimes authors and journalists don’t go into enough detail.

So I’ve created this infographic to help explain how greenhouse gas emissions are measured. I think it’s important to understand these metrics because they’re so critical to discussions about the current state of the climate, and about what policies we should implement for a better future.

You can download a PDF version here:

The links in the Notes section are only clickable in the PDF version.

Is this helpful? Are there other climate change statistics you’d like to know more about?

Please let me know in the comments.

Thanks!