For most of the world, 2014 was hot. In fact, it was the Hottest. Year. Ever.
Or at least since us humans started recording such things.
Here’s what that looked like in some places:
A major cause for all this heat is above our heads in the atmosphere.
It can be kind of hard to grasp … until now.
NASA just made it awesomely concrete. They’ve created a visualization of CO2 emissions around the world for every day in 2006.
The kicker of the visualization for me was being able to see exactly where a lot of those emissions come from.
And also, many of the places most vulnerable to climate change are the lowest emitters of CO2.
And plants play a huge role by taking up CO2 during spring and summer and NOT absorbing it in fall and winter. Yikes!
Here it is in action:
I now have a whole new way of thinking about what’s going on in that blue sky above my head.
