Carbon Story – The Great History of Man and Carbon.
Human activity is the main cause of climate change. The Global Carbon Project released an interactive story of the human impact on carbon emissions since prehistoric times, with focus on the last 250 years. Before the Industrial Revolution began in the mid-1700s, the concentration of carbon dioxide was about 280 ppm. Since then, the burning of fossil fuels and other human-related activities have increased the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere by more than 40% to 400 ppm today. The present concentration is the highest in the past 800,000 years. The story of climate change is best told by exploring some key points in time to show how we got to where we are today.
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- Investigate human progress through history and the human impact on the carbon in the atmosphere
- Investiga el progreso humano através de la historia y los efectos de la actividad humana en el carbono atmosférico
- Découvrez comment les activités humaines ont changé progressivement la teneur en CO2 dans l’atmosphère
- История развития цивилизации и влияние человека на концентрацию CO2 в атмосфере
The Past, Present and Future of CO₂
CO₂ emissions from human activities are now higher than ever before in history. Recent data says that global carbon emissions were 150 times higher in 2011 than they were in 1850. Emissions were still rising overall, but at second sight it becomes apparent that many of the industrialized countries stabilized their per capita emissions during the second half of the 20th century.
Global Carbon Emissions over Time
The current event of global warming is attributed primarily to increasing industrial CO₂ emissions into Earth’s atmosphere. Slate visualized how we did arrive at such an disastrous state. They used datasets published by WRI’s climate data explorer with historical growth of CO₂ emissions estimates from 1850-2011 throughout the world. Click play on the timeline to see how fossil fuel emissions of every country have changed since 1850.