Temperatures & Emissions

Are emissions causing climate change?

Temperature Data Across the Globe

Is the world getting warmer?


"NCEI is responsible for hosting and providing access to one of the most significant archives on Earth, with comprehensive oceanic, atmospheric, and geophysical data."

National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), About Us

Climatological data has been collected in various forms for hundreds of years. The data used to develop the prediction models on this page dates back to 1880. The globe to the right displays the climate stations used by the NCEI to collect data since 1880 or earlier.

Hover over each marker on the globe to view the station and its city. Drag the globe to pan.




"The September 2020 globally averaged temperature... was the highest for the month of September in the 141-year NOAA global temperature dataset record, which dates back to 1880."

NCEI, Assessing the Global Climate in September 2020

The largest rise in global temperature happened at the time of the Industrial Revolution, but temperature has continued to soar throughout the 21st century.

The regression model used here uses the trend of the past 40 years to predict:

  • Projection - the continued climb in temperature on our current trajectory;
  • Easing rules - temperatures if an addtional 0.05% CO2 were allowed each year;
  • Stricter rules - temperatures if CO2 emissions were decreased 0.05% each year.

Hover over the model to view specific values.

Measuring Emissions

CO2 Pollution

Earth will always survive; it is humanity that we must save. Time is running out.
We must make personal, cultural, and systemic changes in order for our home planet to remain habitable for human life.

CO2 concentrations are rising at a dangerous pace.

This regression model operates off of individual levels of CO2 emissions & annual temperature recordings. Again, we have forecasted three different futures with 96% accuracy rate:

  • no change to behavior,
  • .05% decrease in behavior, and
  • .05% increase in behavior.

The scientific community anticipates a dractic uptick in extreme weather once CO2 reaches above 500 ppm. In our "doomsday" scenario, we could overtake that threshold in 2041. At our current trend, we'd reach that in 2072.

Hover over the figure to view CO2 projection values (in ppm) for each model.



"[The] link between global temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations – especially CO2 – has been true throughout Earth’s history."

Our World in Data, CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions


The above map displays the total CO2 output in 2018 (in metric megatons) from countries all over the world. We can observe that industrialized countries with higher populations and larger urban areas are the largest contributors.

Of note, the U.S. is the second-largest emitter (5,416 MT), while China nearly doubles that value (10,064 MT).

Hover over the map to view each country's measured value.