Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels

Color how global carbon emissions have changed in the last two centuries

Data sources

Global Fossil-Fuel CO2 Emissions (1751-2014) by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Accessed May 2017.

The data includes:

• Annual estimates of total global carbon emissions from fossil fuel consumption and cement production from 1751 to 2014
• The emission estimates for each year are expressed in one million metric tons of carbon

How the data was used

• For the coloring activities, three years were observed: 1760 (beginning of the Industrial Revolution), 1870 (beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution), and 2014 (the latest available estimate)
• For each year, one circle was placed per one million metric tons of carbon:
  • 1760: 3 million,
  • 1870: 147 million (~49 times 1760 levels),
  • 2014: 9,855 million (~67 times 1870 levels)

Code

A python script is available in the code repository to generate or extend this activity, and can be run like this:

python co2.py

Which will create an svg file showing global carbon emissions from fossil fuels for 1760, 1870, and 2014.